> 


HERBERT  SPENCEK. 


•*  EDUCATION  •< 


Intellectual,  Moral  and  Physical 


By  HERBERT  SPENCER 

Author  of   »  FIRST  PRINCIPLES," 
"DATA  OF  ETHICS,"  etc,  etc.  ^ 


A.  L.   HURT  COMPANY,  PUBLISHERS, 


CONTENTS. 


I.    WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  IS  OF  MOST  VfOBTH?     ....  5 

II.    INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATIOK    „      .             94 

[II.  MORAL  EDUCATION     ....         169 

IV.  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION      .         .    .     ......  296 


2234758 


EDUCATION. 


CHAPTER  I. 

WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  IS  OF   MOST  WORTH. 

IT  has  been  truly  remarked  that,  in  order  of  time, 
decoration  precedes  dress.  Among  people  who  sub- 
mit to  great  physical  suffering  that  they  may  have 
themselves  handsomely  tattooed,  extremes  of  tern, 
perature  are  borne  with  but  little  attempt  at  mitiga- 
tion. Humboldt  tells  us  that  an  Orinoco  Indian, 
though  quite  regardless  of  bodily  comfort,  will  yet 
labor  for  a  fortnight  to  purchase  pigment  where- 
with to  make  himself  admired  ;  and  that  the  same 
woman  who  would  not  hesitate  to  leave  her  hut 
without  a  fragment  of  clothing  on,  would  not  dare 
to  commit  such  a  breach  of  decorum  as  to  go  out  un- 
painted.  Voyagers  uniformly  find  that  colored  beads 
and  trinkets  are  much  more  prized  by  wild  tribes 
than  are  calicoes  or  broadcloths.  And  the  anecdotes 

we  have  of  the  ways  in  which,  when  shirts  and  coat* 

(5) 


8  EDUCATION. 

are  given,  they  turn  them  to  some  ludicrous  display, 
show  how  completely  the  idea  of  ornament  predomi 
nates  over  that  of  use.  Nay,  there  are  still  more  ex- 
treme illustrations:  witness  the  iaci  narrated  by 
Qapt.  Speke  of  his  African  attendants,  who  strutted 
about  in  their  goat-skin  mantles  when  the  weather 
was  fine,  but  when  it  was  wet,  took  them  off,  folded 
them  up,  and  went  about  naked,  shivering  in  the 
rain !  Indeed,  the  facts  of  aboriginal  Iif3  seem  to 
indicate  that  dress  is  developed  out  of  decorations. 
And  when  we  remember  that  even  among  ourselves 
most  think  more  about  the  fineness  of  the  fabric  than 
its  warmth,  and  more  about  the  cut  than  the  con- 
venience— when  we  see  that  the  function  is  still  in 
great  measure  subordinated  to  the  appearance — we 
have  further  reason  for  inferring  such  an  origin. 

It  is  not  a  little  curious  that  the  like  relations 
hold  with  the  mind.  Among  mental  as  among  bod- 
ily acquisitions,  the  ornamental  comes  before  the 
useful.  Not  only  in  times  past,  but  almost  as  much 
in  our  own  era,  that  knowledge  which  conduces  to 
personal  well-being  has  been  postponed  to  that  which 
brings  applause.  In  the  Greek  schools,  music,  poetry, 
rhetoric,  and  a  philosophy  which,  until  Socrates 
taught,  had  but  little  bearing  upon  action,  were  the 
dominant  subjects  ;  while  knowledge  aiding  the  arta 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  IS  OF  MOST  WORTHt  7 

of  life  had  a  very  subordinate  place.  And  in  our 
own  universities  and  schools  at  the  present  moment 
the  like  antithesis  holds.  We  are  guilty  of  some- 
thing  like  a  platitude  when  we  say  that  throughout 
his  after-career  a  boy,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  ap- 
plies his  Latin  and  Greek  to  no  practical  purposes. 
The  remark  is  trite  that  in  his  shop,  or  his  office,  in 
managing  his  estate  or  his  family,  in  playing  his  part 
as  director  of  a  bank  or  a  railway,  he  is  very  little 
aided  by  this  knowledge  he  took  so  many  years  to  ac- 
quire— so  little,  that  generally  the  greater  part  of  it 
drops  out  of  his  memory  ;  and  if  he  occasionally  vents 
a  Latin  quotation,  or  alludes  to  some  Greek  myth,  it  is 
less  to  throw  light  on  the  topic  in  hand  than  for  the 
sake  of  effect.  If  we  inquire  what  is  the  real  motive 
for  giving  boys  a  classical  education,  we  find  it  to  be 
simply  conformity  to  public  opinion.  Men  dress 
their  children's  minds  as  they  do  their  bodies,  in  the 
prevailing  fashion.  As  the  Orinoco  Indian  puts  on 
'ais  paint  before  leaving  his  hut,  not  with  a  view  to 
any  direct  benefit,  but  because  he  would  be  ashamed 
to  be  seen  without  it ;  so,  a  boy's  drilling  in  Latin 
and  Greek  is  insisted  on,  not  because  of  their  in- 
trinsic value,  but  that  he  may  not  be  disgraced  by 
being  found  ignorant  of  them — that  he  may  have 
14  the  education  of  a  gentleman  " — the  bado-e  mart 


a  EDUCATION 

ing  a  certain  social  position,  and  bringing  a  conse» 
quent  respect. 

This  parallel  is  still  more  clearly  displayed  in  the 
case  of  the  other  sex.  In  the  treatment  of  both 
mind  and  body,  the  decorative  element  has  contin- 
ued to  predominate  in  a  greater  degree  among 
women  than  among  men.  Originally,  personal 
adornment  occupied  the  attention  of  both  sexes 
equally.  In  these  latter  days  of  civilization,  how- 
ever, we  see  that  in  the  dress  of  men  the  regard  for 
appearance  has  in  a  considerable  degree  yielded  to 
the  regard  for  comfort ;  while  in  their  education  the 
useful  has»  of  late  been  trenching  on  the  ornamental. 
In  neither  direction  has  this  change  gone  so  far  with 
women.  The  wearing  of  ear-rings,  finger-rings, 
bracelets;  the  elaborate  dressings  of  the  hair;  the 
still  occasional  use  of  paint ;  the  immense  labor  be- 
stowed in  making  habiliments  sufficiently  attractive ; 
and  the  great  discomfort  that  will  be  submitted  to  for 
the  sake  of  conformity ;  show  how  greatly  in  the  at- 
tiring of  women,  the  desire  of  approbation  overrides 
the  desire  for  warmth  and  convenience.  And  simi- 
larly in  their  education,  the  immense  preponderance 
of  "  accomplishments  "  proves  how  here,  too,  use  is 
subordinated  to  display.  Dancing,  deportment,  the 
piano,  singing,  drawing — what  a  large  space  do  these 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  18  OF  MOST  WORTH*  9 

occupy !  If  you  ask  why  Italian  and  German  are 
learnt,  you  will  find  that  under  all  the  sham  reasons 
given,  the  real  reason  is,  that  a  knowledge  of  those 
tongues  is  thought  lady  like.  It  is  not  that  the 
books  written  in  them  may  be  utilized,  which  they 
scarcely  ever  are ;  but  that  Italian  and  German 
songs  may  be  sung,  and  that  the  extent  of  attain- 
ment may  bring  whispered  admiration.  The  births, 
deaths  and  marriages  of  kings,  and  other  like  his- 
toric trivialities,  are  committed  to  memory,  not  be- 
cause of  any  direct  benefits  that  can  possibly  result 
from  knowing  them ;  but  because  society  considers 
them  parts  of  a  good  education — because  the  absence 
of  such  knowledge  may  bring  the  contempt  of  others. 
Whan  we  have  named  reading,  writing,  spelling,  gram- 
mar, arithmetic,  and  sewing,  we  hare  named  about  all 
the  things  a  girl  is  taught  with  a  view  to  their  direct 
uses  in  life ;  and  even  some  of  these  have  more  ref- 
erence to  the  good  opinion  of  others  than  to  im- 
mediate personal  welfare. 

Thoroughly  to  realize  the  truth  that  with  the 
mind  as  with  the  body  the  ornamental  precedes  the 
useful,  it  is  needful  to  glance  at  its  rationale.  This 
lies  in  the  fact  that,  from  the  far  past  down  even  to 
the  present,  social  needs  have  subordinated  individ- 
ual needs,  and  that  the  chief  social  need  has  been 


10  EDUCATION. 

the  control  of  individuals.  It  is  not,  as  we  com- 
monly suppose,  that  there  are  no  governments  but 
those  of  monarehs,  and  parliaments,  and  constituted 
authorities.  These  acknowledged  governments  are 
supplemented  by  other  unacknowledged  ones,  that 
grow  up  in  all  circles,  in  which  svery  man  or  woman 
strives  to  be  king  or  queen  or  lesser  dignitary.  To 
get  aoove  some  and  be  reverenced  by  them,  and  to 
propitiate  those  who  are  above  us,  is  the  universal 
struggle  in  which  the  chief  energies  of  life  are  ex- 
pended. By  the  accumulation  of  wealth,  by  style 
of  living,  by  beauty  of  dress,  by  display  of  knowl- 
edge or  intellect,  each  tries  to  subjugate  others; 
and  so  aids  in  weaving  that  ramified  network  of 
restraints  by  which  society  is  kept  in  order.  It  is 
not  the  savage  chief  only,  who,  in  formidable  war- 
paint, with  scalps  at  his  belt,  aims  to  strike  awe  into 
his  inferiors ;  it  is  not  only  the  belle  who,  by  elab 
orate  toilet,  polished  manners,  and  numerous  accom- 
plishments, strives  to  "  make  conquests ; "  but  the 
scholar,  the  historian,  the  philosopher,  use  their  ac- 
quirements to  the  same  end.  We  are  none  01  us 
content  with  quietly  unfolding  our  own  individual- 
>  to  the  full  in  all  directions .  but  have  a  restless 
.uving  to  impress  our  individualities  upon  others, 
and  in  some  wav  subordinate  them.  And  this  it  is 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  IS  OF  MOST  WORTH f          11 

which  determines  the  character  of  our  education. 
Not  what  knowledge  is  of  most  real  worth,  is  the 
considerate.: 'i ;  but  what  will  bring  most  applause, 
honor,  respect — what  will  most  conduce  to  social 
position  and  influence — what  will  be  most  imposing. 
As,  throughout  life,  not  what  we  are,  but  what  we 
shall  be  thought,  is  the  question ;  so  in  education, 
the  question  is,  not  the  intrinsic  value  of  knowledge, 
so  much  as  its  extrinsic  effects  on  others.  And  this 
oeiug  our  dominant  idea,  direct  utility  is  scarcely 
more  regarded  than  by  the  barbarian  when  filing  his 
teeth  and  staining  his  nails. 

If  there  needs  any  further  evidence  of  the  rude, 
undeveloped  character  of  our  education,  we  have  it 
in  the  fact  that  the  comparative  worths  of  different 
kinds  of  knowledge  have  been  as  yet  scarcely  even 
discussed — much  less  discussed  in  a  methodic  way 
With  definite  results.  Not  only  is  it  that  no  standard 
of  relative  values  has  yet  been  agreed  upon ;  but  the 
3xistence  of  any  such  standard  has  not  been  con- 
ceived in  any  clear  manner.  And  not  only  is  it  that 
the  existence  of  any  such  standard  has  not  been 
clearly  conceived  ;  but  the  need  for  it  seems  to  have 
been  scarcely  even  felt.  Men  read  books  on  this 
topic,  and  attend  lectures  on  that ;  decide  that  their 


12  EDUCATION. 

children  shall  be  initructed  in  these  branches  of 
knowledge,  and  shall  not  be  instructed  in  those, 
and  all  under  the  guidance  of  mere  custom,  or  liking, 
or  prejudice  ;  without  ever  considering  the  enormous 
importance  of  determining  in  some  rational  way 
what  things  are  really  most  worth  learning.  It  is 
true  that  in  all  circles  we  have  occasional  remarks 
on  the  importance  of  this  or  the  other  order  of  in 
formation.  But  whether  the  degree  of  its  import- 
ance justifies  the  expenditure  of  the  time  needed  to 
acquire  it ;  and  whether  there  are  not  things  of  more 
importance  to  which  the  time  might  be  better  de- 
voted ;  are  queries  which,  if  raised  at  all,  are  dis« 
posed  of  quite  summarily,  according  to  personal 
predilections.  It  is  true  also,  that  from  time  to 
time,  we  hear  revived  the  standing  controversy  re- 
specting the  comparative  merits  of  classics  and 
mathematics.  Not  only,  however,  is  this  controversy 
carried  on  in  an  empirical  manner,  with  no  reference 
to  an  ascertained  criterion ;  but  the  question  at  issue 
is  totally  insignificant  when  compared  with  the 
general  question  of  which  it  is  part.  To  suppose 
that  deciding  whether  a  mathematical  or  a  classical 
education  is  the  best,  is  deciding  what  is  the  proper 
curriculum^  is  much  the  same  thing  as  to  suppose 
that  the  whole  of  dietetics  lies  in  determining 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  IS  OF  MOST  WORTH?  13 

whether  or  not  bread  is  more  nutritive  than  pota- 
toes ' 

The  question  which  we  contend  is  of  such  trani- 
cendent  moment,  is,  not  whether  such  or  such 
knowledge  is  of  worth,  but  what  is  its  relative 
worth  ?  When  they  have  named  certain  advantages 
which  a  given  course  of  study  has  secured  them, 
persons  are  apt  to  assume  that  they  have  justified 
themselves :  quite  forgetting  that  the  adequateness 
of  the  advantages  is  the  point  to  be  judged.  There 
is,  perhaps,  not  a  subject  to  which  men  devote 
attention  that  has  not  some  value.  A  year  diligently 
spent  in  getting  up  heraldry,  would  very  possibly 
give  a  little  further  insight  into  ancient  manners 
and  morals,  and  into  the  origin  of  names.  Any  one 
who  should  learn  the  distances  between  all  the 
towns  in  England,  might,  in  the  course  of  his  life 
find  one  or  two  of  the  thousand  facts  he  had  acquired 
of  some  slight  service  when  arranging  a  journey. 
Gathering  together  all  the  small  gossip  of  a  county, 
profitless  occupation  as  it  would  be,  might  yet 
occasionally  help  to  establish  some  useful  fact — say, 
a  good  example  of  hereditary  transmission.  But  in 
these  cases,  every  one  would  admit  that  there  was 
no  proportion  between  the  required  labor  and  the 
probable  benefit.  No  one  would  tolerate  the  pro- 


14  EDUCATION. 

posal  tc  devote  some  years  of  a  boy's  time  to  getting 
such  information,  at  the  cost  of  much  more  valuable 
information  which  he  might  else  have  got.  And  if 
her?  the  test  of  relative  value  is  appealed  to  and 
held  conclusive,  then  should  it  be  appealed  to  and 
heid  conclusive  throughout.  Had  we  time  to  master 
all  subjects  we  need  not  be  particular.  To  quote 
the  old  song : — 

Could  a  man  be  secure 

That  his  days  would  endure 

As  of  old  for  a  thousand  long  yean, 

What  things  might  he  know  : 

What  deeds  might  he  do ! 

And  all  without  hurry  or  care. 

u  But  we  that  have  but  span-long  lives  w  must  ever 
bear  m  mind  our  limited  time  for  acquisition.  And 
remembering  how  narrowly  this  time  is  limited,  net 
only  by  the  shortness  of  life,  but  also  still  more  by  the 
business  of  life,  we  ought  to  be  especially  solicitous  to 
employ  what  time  we  have  to  the  greatest  ad  vantage. 
Before  devoting  years  to  some  subject  which  fashion 
or  fancy  suggests,  it  is  surely  wise  to  weigh  with 
great  care  the  worth  of  the  results,  as  compared 
with  the  worth  of  various  alternative  results  which 
the  same  years  mi^ht  bring  if  otherwise  applied. 

In  education,  iue»»  this  is  the  question  of  ques 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  IS  OF  MOST  WORTH f          15 

tions,  which  it  is  high  time  we  discussed  in  some 
methodic  way.  The  first  in  importance,  though  the 
last  to  be  considered,  is  the  problem — how  to  decide 
among  the  conflicting  claims  of  various  subjects  on 
our  attention.  Before  there  can  be  a  rational  curric- 
ulum, we  must  settle  which  things  it  most  concerns 
us  to  know ;  or  to  use  a  word  of  Bacon's,  now  unfor* 
innately  obsolete — we  must  determine  the  relative 
values  of  knowledges. 

To  this  end,  a  measure  of  value  is  the  first  requis 
ite.  And  happily,  respecting  the  true  measure  oi 
value,  as  expressed  in  general  terms,  there  can  be  no 
dispute.  Every  one  in  contending  for  the  worth  of 
any  particular  order  of  information,  does  so  by  show- 
ing its  bearing  upon  some  part  of  life.  In  reply  to 
the  question,  "  Of  what  use  is  it  ?  "  the  mathemati- 
cian, linguist,  naturalist,  or  philosopher,  explains  the 
way  in  which  his  learning  beneficially  influences  ac- 
tion— saves  from  evil  or  secures  good — conduces  to 
happiness.  When  the  teacher  of  writing  has  pointed 
out  how  great  an  aid  writing  is  to  success  in  busi- 
ness— that  is,  to  the  obtainment  of  sustenance — that 
is,  to  satisfactory  living  ;  he  is  held  to  have  proved 
his  case.  And  when  the  collector  of  dead  facts  (say 
a  numismatist)  fails  to  make  clear  any  appreciable 
effects  which  these  fact?  can  produce  on  human  wei 


16  EDUCATION. 

fare,  he  is  obliged  to  admit  that  they  are  compare 
Mvely  valueless.  All  then,  either  directly  or  by  im 
plication,  appeal  to  this  as  the  ultimate  test. 

How  to  live  ? — that  is  the  essential  question  for  us. 
Not  how  to  live  in  the  mere  material  sense  only,  but 
in  the  widest  sense.  The  general  problem  which 
comprehends  every  special  problem  is — the  right  rul 
ing  of  conduct  in  all  directions  under  all  circum 
stances.  In  what  way  to  treat  the  body  ;  in  what 
way  to  treat  the  mind ;  in  what  way  to  manage  our 
affairs ;  in  what  way  to  bring  up  a  family  ;  in  what 
way  to  behave  as  a  citizen ;  in  what  way  to  utilize 
all  those  sources  of  happiness  which  nature  supplies 
— how  to  use  all  our  faculties  to  the  greatest  advant- 
age of  ourselves  and  others — how  to  live  completely  ? 
And  this  being  the  great  thing  needful  for  us  tc 
learn,  is,  by  consequence,  the  great  thing  which  edu- 
cation has  to  teach.  To  prepare  us  for  complete  liv- 
ing is  the  function  which  education  has  to  discharge  ; 
and  the  only  rational  mode  of  judging  of  any  educa- 
tional course  is,  to  judge  in  what  degree  it  discharges 
such  function. 

This  test,  never  used  in  its  entirety,  but  rarely 
even  partially  used,  and  used  then  in  a  vague,  half 
conscious  way,  has  to  be  applied  consciously,  method- 
ic.. !\y,  and  throughout  all  cases.  It  behooves  us  to 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  IS  OF  MOST  WORTH?        1? 

»et  before  ourselves,  and  ever  to  keep  clearly  in  view, 
complete  living  ac  the  end  to  be  achieved ;  so  that 
in  bringing  up  our  children  we  may  choose  subjects 
and  methods  of  instruction,  with  deliberate  refer- 
ence to  this  end.  Not  only  ought  we  to  cease  from 
the  mere  unthinking  adoption  of  the  current  fashion 
in  education,  which  has  no  better  warrant  than  any 
other  fashion  ;  but  we  must  also  rise  above  that  rude, 
empirical  style  of  judging  displayed  by  those  more 
intelligent  people  who  do  bestow  some  care  in  over- 
seeing the  cultivation  of  their  children's  minds.  It 
must  not  suffice  simply  to  think  that  such  or  such 
information  will  be  useful  in  after  life,  or  that  this 
kind  of  knowledge  is  of  more  practical  value  than 
that ;  but  we  must  seek  out  some  process  of  estimat- 
ing their  respective  values,  so  that  as  far  as  possible 
we  may  positively  know  which  are  most  deserving 
of  attention. 

Doubtless  the  task  is  difficult — perhaps  never  to 
be  more  than  approximately  achieved.  But,  con- 
sidering the  vastness  of  the  interests  at  stake,  its 
difficulty  is  no  reason  for  pusillanimously  passing  it 
by  ;  but  rather  for  devoting  every  energy  to  its  mas- 
tery.  And  if  we  only  proceed  systematically,  we 
may  very  soon  get  at  results  of  no  small  moment. 

Our  first  step  must  obviously  be  to  classify,  in  the 


18  EDUCATION. 

order  of  their  importance,  the  leading  kincio  of 
activity  which  constitute  human  life.  They  may 
be  naturally  arranged  into  : — 1.  Those  activities 
which  directly  minister  to  self-preservation ;  2. 
Those  activities  which,  by  securing  the  necessaries 
of  life,  indirectly  minister  to  self-preservation ;  3. 
Those  activities  which  have  for  their  end  the  rear- 
ing and  discipline  of  offspring;  4.  Those  activities 
which  are  involved  in  the  maintenance  of  proper, 
social  and  political  relations ;  5.  Thoss  miscellaneous 
activities  which  make  up  the  leisure  part  of  life, 
devoted  to  the  gratification  of  the  tastes  and  feelings. 
That  these  stand  in  something  like  their  true  order 
of  subordination,  it  needs  no  long  consideration  to 
show.  The  actions  and  precautions  by  which,  from 
moment  to  moment,  we  secure  personal  safety,  must 
clearly  take  precedence  of  all  others.  Could  there 
be  a  man,  ignorant  as  an  infant  of  all  surrounding 
objects  and  movements,  or  how  to  guide  himself 
among  them,  he  would  pretty  certainly  lose  his  life 
the  first  time  he  went  into  the  street :  notwithstand- 
ing any  amount  of  learning  he  might  have  on  other 
matters.  And  as  entire  ignorance  in  all  other  direc- 
tions -would  be  less  promptly  fatal  than  entire  igno- 
rance in  this  direction,  it  must  be  admitted  that 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  IS  OF  MOST  WORTH)  19 

knowledge  immediately  conducive  to  self-preserva- 
tion is  of  primary  importance. 

That  next  after  direct  self-preservation  comes  the 
indirect  self-preservation  which  consists  in  acquiring 
the  means  of  living,  none  will  question.  That  a 
man  s  industrial  functions  must  be  considered  before 
his  parental  ones,  is  manifest  from  the  fact  that| 
speaking  generally,  the  discharge  of  the  parental 
functions  is  made  possible  only  by  the  previous  dis- 
charge of  the  industrial  ones.  The  power  of  self- 
maintenance  necessarily  preceding  the  power  of 
maintaining  offspring,  it  follows  that  knowledge 
needful  for  self-maintenance  has  stronger  claims  than 
knowledge  needful  for  family  welfare — is  second  in 
value  to  none  save  knowledge  needful  for  immediate 
self-preservation. 

As  the  family  comes  before  the  State  in  order  of 
time  —as  the  bringing  up  of  children  is  possible  be- 
fore the  State  exists,  or  when  it  has  ceased  to  be, 
whereas  the  State  is  rendered  possible  only  by  the 
bringing  up  of  children ;  it  follows  that  the  duties 
of  the  parent  demand  closer  attention  than  those  of 
the  citizen.  Or,  to  use  a  further  argument — since 
the  goodness  of  a  society  ultimately  depends  on  the 
nature  of  its  citizens ;  and  since  the  nature  of  its 
citizens  is  more  modifiable  by  early  training  than  by 


ID  EDUCATION 

anything  else;  we  must  conclude  that  the  welfare 
of  the  family  underlies  the  welfare  of  society.     And 
hence   knowledge   directly  conducing  to  the  first, 
must  take  precedence  of   knowledge  directly  con 
ducing  to  the  last. 

Those  various  forms  of  pleasurable  occupation 
<which  fill  up  the  leisure  left  by  graver  occupations-  • 
the  enjoyments  of  music,  poetry,  painting,  etc.  - 
manifestly  imply  a  pre-existing  society.  Not  only  is 
a  considerable  development  of  them  impossible  with- 
out a  long-established  social  union ;  but  theii  very 
subject-matter  consists  in  great  part  of  social  senti- 
ments and  sympathies.  Not  only  does  society  supply 
the  conditions  of  their  growth ;  but  also  the  ideas 
and  sentiments  they  express.  And,  consequently, 
that  part  of  human  conduct  which  constitutes  good 
citizenship  is  of  more  moment  than  that  which  goes 
out  in  accomplishments  or  exercise  of  the  tastes*, 
and,  in  education,  preparation  for  the  one  must  rank 
before  preparation  for  the  other. 

Such  then,  we  repeat,  is  something  like  the  rational 
order  of  subordination  : — That  education  which  pre- 
pares for  direct  self-preservation  ;  that  which  prepare? 
for  indirect  self-preservation ;  that  which  prepares 
for  parenthood  ;  that  which  prepares  for  citizenship 
that  which  prepares  for  the  miscellaneous  refinements 


WHAT  RSOWLEQDE  18  Of  MOST  frO&TBt         21 

ur  life.  We  do  not  mean  to  say  that  these  divisions 
are  definitely  separable.  We  do  not  deny  that  they 
are  intricately  entangled  with  each  other  in  such 
way  that  there  can  be  no  training  for  any  that  is  not 
in  some  measure  a  training  for  alL  Nor  do  we  ques- 
tion that  of  each  division  there  are  portions  more 
important  than  certain  portions  of  the  preceding 
divisions :  that,  for  instance,  a  man  of  much  skill  in 
business  but  little  other  faculty,  may  fall  further  be- 
low the  standard  of  complete  living  than  one  of  but 
moderate  power  of  acquiring  money  but  great  judg- 
ment as  a  parent ;  or  that  exhaustive  information 
bearing  on  right  social  action,  joined  with  entire 
want  of  general  culture  in  literature  and  the  fine 
arts,  is  less  desirable  than  a  more  moderate  snare  of 
the  one  joined  with  some  of  the  other.  But,  after 
making  all  qualifications,  there  still  remain  these 
broadly-marked  divisions,  and  it  still  continues  sub- 
stantially true  that  these  divisions  subordinate  one 
another  in  the  foregoing  order,  because  the  corres- 
ponding divisions  of  life  make  one  another  possible  in 
that  ot-der. 

Of  course  the  ideal  of  education  is — complete 
preparation  in  all  these  divisions.  But  failing  this 
ideal,  as  in  our  phase  of  civilization  every  one  must 
do  more  or  less,  the  aim  should  be  to  maintain  a  due 


29  EDUCATION. 

proportion  between  the  degrees  of  preparation  in 
each.  Not  exhaustive  cultivation  in  any  one,  sr 
premely  important  though  it  may  be — not  even  a?. 
exclusive  attention  to  the  two,  three,  or  four  divi- 
sions of  greatest  importance ;  but  an  attention  to 
all, — greatest  where  the  value  is  greatest,  less  where 
the  value  is  less,  least  where  the  value  is  least.  For 
the  average  man  (not  to  forget  the  cases  in  whick 
peculiar  aptitude  for  some  one  department  of  knowl- 
edge rightly  makes  that  one  the  bread  winning  occu- 
pation)— for  the  average  man,  we  say,  the  desider- 
atum is,  a  training  that  approaches  nearest  to  perfec- 
tion in  the  things  which  most  subserve  complete  liv 
ing,  and  falls  more  and  more  below  perfection  in  the 
things  that  have  more  and  more  remote  bearings  on 
complete  living. 

In  regulating  education  by  this  standard,  there  are 
some  general  considerations  that  should  l>;  evei 
present  to  us.  The  worth  of  any  kind  of  culture 
as  aiding  complete  living,  may  be  either  necessary 
or  more  or  less  contingent.  There  is  knowledge  of 
Intrinsic  value  ;  knowledge  of  quasi-intrinsic  value 
and  knowledge  of  conventional  value.  Such  facts 
as  that  sensations  of  numbness  and  tingling  com- 
monly precede  paralysis,  that  the  resistance  of  water 
to  a  body  moving  through  it  varies  as  the  square 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  IS  OF  MOST  WORTH?  23 

of  the  velocity,  that  chlorine  is  a  disinfectant,— 
these,  and  the  truths  of  Science  in  general,  are  of 
intrinsic  value :  they  will  bear  on  human  conduct 
ten  thousand  years  hence  as  they  do  now.  The 
extra  knowledge  of  our  own  language,  which  is 
^iven  by  an  acquaintance  with  Latin  and  Greekv 
may  be  considered  to  have  a  value  that  is  quasi-in 
trinsic ;  it  must  exist  for  us  and  for  other  race& 
whose  languages  owe  much  to  these  sources;  but 
will  last  only  as  long  as  our  languages  last.  While 
that  kind  of  information  which,  in  our  schools, 
usurps  the  name  History — the  mere  tissue  of  names 
and  dates  and  dead  unmeaning  events — has  a  con- 
ventional value  only  :  it  has  not  the  remotest  bear- 
ing upon  any  of  our  actions ;  and  is  of  use  only 
for  the  avoidance  of  those  unpleasant  criticisms 
which  current  opinion  passes  upon  its  absence.  Of 
course,  as  those  facts  which  concern  all  mankind 
throughout  all  time  must  be  held  of  greater  moment 
fchan  those  which  concern  only  a  portion  of  them 
during  a  limited  era,  and  of  far  greater  moment 
than  those  which  concern  only  a  portion  of  them 
during  the  continuance  of  a  fashion ;  it  follows  that 
in  a  rational  estimate,  knowledge  of  intrinsic  worth 
must,  ether  things  equal,  take  precedence  of  knowl- 
edge that  is  of  quasi-intrinsic  or  conventional  worth. 


24  EDUCATION. 

One  further  preliminary.  Acquirement  of  every 
kind  has  two  values — value  as  knowledge  and  value 
as  discipline.  Besides  its  use  for  guidance  in  con  - 
duct,  the  acquisition  of  each  order  of  facts  has  also 
its  use  as  mental  exercise ;  and  its  effects  as  a  pre- 
parative for  complete  living  have  to  be  considered 
under  both  these  heads. 

These,  then,  are  the  general  ideas  with  which  we 
must  set  out  in  discussing  a  curriculum : — Life  as 
divided  into  several  kinds  of  activity  of  successively 
decreasing  importance ;  the  worth  of  each  order  of 
facts  as  regulating  these  several  kinds  of  activity, 
intrinsically,  quasi -intrinsically,  and  conventionally; 
and  their  regulative  influences  estimated  both  as 
knowledge  and  discipline. 

Flappily,  that  all-important  part  of  education 
wnich  goes  to  secure  direct  self-preservation,  is  in 
great  part  already  provided  for.  Too  momentous 
to  be  left  to  our  blundering,  Nature  takes  it  into  her 
own  hands.  While  yet  in  its  nurse's  arms,  the  in- 
fant, by  hiding  its  face  and  crying  at  the  sight  of  a. 
stranger,  shows  the  dawning  instinct  to  attain  safety 
by  flying  from  that  which  is  unknown  and  may 
be  dangerous;  and  when  it  can  walk,  the  terror  it 
manifests  it'  an  unfamiliar  do<;  comes  near,  or  th^ 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  IS  OF  MOST  WORTH?       25 

screams  with  which  it  runs  to  its  mother  after  any 
startling  sight  or  sound,  shows  this  instinct  furthe- 
developed.  Moreover,  knowledge  subserving  direct 
self-preservation  is  that  which  it  is  chiefly  busied  in 
acquiring  from  hour  to  hour.  How  to  balance  its 
body ;  how  to  control  its  movements  so  as  to  avoid 
collisions ;  what  objects  are  hard,  and  will  hurt  if 
struck ;  what  objects  are  heavy,  and  injure  if  they 
fall  on  the  limbs;  which  things  will  bear  the  weight 
of  the  body,  and  which  not;  the  pains  inflicted  by 
ft  re,  by  missiles,  by  sharp  instruments — these,  and 
various  other  pieces  of  information  needful  for  the 
Avoidance  of  death  or  accident,  it  is  ever  learning. 
And  when,  a  few  years  later,  the  energies  go  out  in 
rhiming,  climbing,  and  jumping,  in  games  of  strength 
and  games  of  skill,  we  see  in  all  these  actions  by 
which  the  muscles  are  developed,  the  perceptions 
sharpened,  and  the  judgment  quickened,  a  prepara- 
tion for  the  safe  conduct  of  the  body  among  sur- 
rounding objects  and  movements ;  and  for  meeting 
those  greater  dangers  that  occasionally  occur  in  the 
lives  of  all.  Being  thus,  we  may  say,  so  well  cared 
for  by  Nature,  this  fundamental  education  needs 
comparatively  little  caro  from  us.  What  we  are 
chiefly  called  upon  to  see,  is,  that  there  shall  be  free 
scope  for  gaming  this  experience,  and  receiving  this 


26  EDUCATION. 

discipline.— that  there  shall  be  nc  such  thwarting  ol 
.Nature  as  that  by  which  stupid  schoolmistresses 
commonly  prevent  the  girls  in  their  charge  from  the 
spontaneous  physical  activities  tliey  would  indulge 
in ;  and  to  render  them  comparatively  incapable  of 
taking  care  of  themselves  in  circumstances  of  peril. 

This,  however,  is  by  no  means  all  that  is  compre- 
hended in  the  education  that  prepares  for  direct 
self-preservation.  Besides  guarding  the  body  against 
mechanical  damage  or  destruation,  it  has  to  be 
guarded  against  injury  from  other  causes — against 
the  disease  and  death  that  follow  breaches  of  physio- 
logic law.  For  complete  living  it  is  necessary,  not 
only  that  sudden  annihilations  of  life  shall  be  warded 
off ;  but  also  that  there  shall  be  escaped  the  inca- 
pacities and  the  slow  annihilation  which  unwise 
habits  entail.  As,  without  health  and  energy,  the 
Industrial,  the  parental,  the  social,  and  all  other  ac- 
tivities become  more  or  less  impossible :  it  is  cleaj 
that  this  secondary  kind  of  direct  self -preservation 
is  only  less  important  than  the  primary  kind :  airl 
that  knowledge  tending  to  secure  it  should  rank  very 
high. 

It  is  true  that  here,  too,  guidance  is  in  some 
measure  ready  supplied.  By  our  various  physical  sen- 
nations  and  desires,  Nature  has  insured  a  tolerable 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  IS  OF  MOST  WORTH f          27 

conformity  to  the  chief  requirements.  Fortunately 
tor  us,  want  of  food,  great  heat,  extreme  cold,  produce 
promptings  too  peremptory  to  be  disregarded.  And 
would  men  habitually  obey  these  and  all  like  prompt- 
ings w  .en  less  strong,  comparatively  few  evils  would 
arise.  If  fatigue  of  body  or  brain  were  in  every 
case  followed  by  desistance ;  if  the  oppression  pro* 
duced  by  a  close  atmosphere  always  led  to  ventila- 
tion ;  if  there  were  no  eating  without  hunger,  or 
drinking  without  thirst ;  then  would  the  system  be 
but  seldom  out  of  working  order.  But  so  profound 
an  ignorance  is  there  of  the  laws  of  life,  that  men 
do  not  even  know  that  their  sensations  are  then 
natural  guides,  and  (when  not  rendered  morbid  by 
long  continued  disobedience )  their  trustworthy 
guides.  So  that  though,  to  speak  ideologically. 
Nature  has  provided  efficient  safeguards  to  health, 
lack  of  knowledge  makes  them  in  a  great  measure 
useless. 

If  any  one  doubts  the  importance  of  an  acquaint- 
ance with  the  fundamental  principles  of  physiology 
as  a  means  to  complete  living,  let  him  look  around 
and  see  how  many  men  and  women  he  can  find  IP 
middle  or  later  life  who  are  thoroughly  well.  Occa 
sionalJy  only  do  we  meet  with  an  example  of  vigor- 
ous health  continued  to  old  age ;  hourly  do  we  meet 


IB  EDUCATION. 

with  examples  of  acute  disorder,  chronic  ailment^ 
general  debility,  premature  decrepitude.  Scarcely 
Is  there  one  to  whom  you  put  the  question,  who  lias 
not,  in  the  course  of  his  life  brought  upon  himself 
illnesses  which  a  little  knowledge  would  have  saved 
him  from.  Here  is  a  case  of  heart  disease  conse- 
quent on  a  rheumatic  fever  that  followed  reckless 
exposure.  There  is  a  case  of  eyes  spoiled  for  life 
by  overstudy.  Yesterday  the  account  was  of  one 
whose  long-enduring  lameness  was  brought  on  by 
continuing,  spite  of  the  pain,  to  use  a  knee  after  it 
had  been  slightly  injured.  And  to-day  we  are  told 
of  another  who  has  had  to  lie  by  for  years,  because 
he  did  not  know  that  the  palpitation  he  suffered 
from  resulted  from  overtaxed  brain.  Now  we  hear 
of  an  irremediable  injury  that  followed  some  silly 
feat  of  strength ;  and,  again,  of  a  constitution  that 
has  never  recovered  from  the  effects  of  excessive 
work  needlessly  undertaken.  While  on  all  sides  wt 
see  the  perpetual  minor  ailments  which  accompany 
feebleness.  Not  to  dwell  on  the  natural  pain,  the 
weariness,  the  gloom,  the  waste  of  time  and  money 
thus  entailed,  only  consider  how  greatly  ill-health 
binders  the  discharge  of  all  duties — makes  business 
often  impossible,  and  always  more  difficult ;  pro- 
duces an  irritabilitv  fatal  *f*  tb^  right  management 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  IS  OF  MOST  WORTH*  29 

oi:  children  ;  puts  the  i'unctioi  ?  of  citizenship  out  of 
the  question ;  and  makes  amusement  a  bore.  Is  it 
not  clear  that  the  physical  sins — partly  our  fore* 
fathers'  and  partly  our  own — which  produce  this  ill. 
health,  deduct  more  from  complete  living  than 
anything  else  ?  and  to  a  great  extent  make  life  a 
failure  and  a  burden  instead  of  a  benefaction  and  a 
pleasure  ? 

To  all  which  add  the  fact,  that  life,  besides  being 
thus  immensely  deteriorated,  is  also  cut  short.  It  is 
not  true,  as  we  commonly  suppose,  that  a  disorder 
or  disease  from  which  we  have  recovered  leaves  us 
as  before.  No  disturbance  of  the  normal  course  of 
the  functions  can  pass  away  and  leave  things  ex» 
actly  as  they  were.  In  all  cases  a  permanent  dam- 
age is  done— not  immediately  appreciable,  it  may  be, 
but  still  there ;  and  along  with  other  such  items 
which  Nature  in  her  strict  account-keeping  never 
drops,  wiH  tell  against  us  to  the  inevitable  shorten- 
ing of  our  days.  Through  the  accumulation  of 
small  injuries  it  is  that  constitutions  are  commonly 
undermined,  and  break  down,  long  before  their  time. 
And  if  we  call  to  mind  how  far  the  average  dura- 
tion of  life  falls  below  the  possible  duration,  we  see 
.how  immense  is  the  loss.  When,  to  the  numerous 
partial  deductions  which  bad  health  entails,  we  add 


30  EDUCATION. 

this  great  ^jal  deduction,  it  results  that  ordinarily 
more  than  one-half  of  life  is  thrown  away. 

Hence,  knowledge  which  subserves  direct  sen- 
preservation  by  preventing  this  loss  of  health,  is  of 
primary  importance.  We  do  not  contend  that  pos 
session  of  such  knowledge  would  by  any  meant 
wholly  remedy  the  evil.  For  it  is  clear  that  in  cu- 
present  phase  of  civilization  men's  necessities  oi'teL 
compel  them  to  transgress.  And  it  is  further  clear 
that,  even  in  the  absence  of  such  compulsion,  their 
inclinations  would  frequently  lead  them,  spite  of 
their  knowledge,  to  sacrifice  future  good  to  present 
gratification.  But  we  do  contend  that  the  right 
knowledge  impressed  in  the  right  way  would  effect 
much ;  and  we  further  contend  that  as  the  laws  ot 
health  must  be  recognized  before  they  can  be  fully 
conformed  to,  the  imparting  of  such  knowledge  must 
precede  a  more  rational  living — come  when  that 
may.  We  infer  that  as  vigorous  health  and  its 
accompanying  high  spirits  are  larger  elements  of 
happiness  than  any  other  things  whatever,  the  teach- 
ing how  to  maintain  them  is  a  teaching  that  yields 
in  moment  to  no  other  whatever.  And  therefore  we 
issert  that  such  &  course  of  physiology  as  is  needful 
tor  the  comprehension  of  its  general  truths,  and 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  IS  OF  MOST  WORTH?       31 

their  bearings  on  daily  conduct,  is  an  all-essential 
part  of  a  rational  education. 

Strange  that  the  assertion  should  need  making ! 
Stranger  still  that  it  skoold  need  defending !  Yet 
are  there  not  a  few  by  whom  such  a  proposition  will 
be  received  with  something  approaching  to  derision. 
Men  who  would  blush  if  caught  saying  .Iphigenia  in- 
stead of  Iphigenia,  or  would  resent  as  an  insult  any 
imputation  of  ignorance  respecting  the  fabled  labors 
of  a  fabled  demi-god,  show  not  the  slightest  shame 
in  confessing  that  they  do  not  know  where  the  Eus- 
tachian  tubes  are,  what  are  the  actions  of  the  spinal 
cord,  what  is  the  normal  rate  of  pulsation,  or  how 
the  lungs  are  inflated.  While  anxious  that  their  sons 
should  be  well  up  in  the  superstitions  of  two  thou- 
sand years  ago.  they  care  not  that  they  should  be 
taught  anything  about  the  structure  and  functions 
of  their  own  bodies — nay,  would  even  disapprove 
•such  instruction.  So  overwhelming  is  the  influence 
of  established  routine !  So  terribly  in  our  education 
does  the  ornamental  override  the  useful ! 

We  need  not  insist  on  the  value  of  that  knowl- 
edge which  aids  indirect  self-preservation  by  facili- 
tating the  gaining  of  a  livelihood.  This  is  admitted 
by  all ;  and,  indeed,  by  the  mass  is  perhaps  too  ex- 
clusively regarded  <*s  the  end  of  education.  But 


38  EDUCATION. 

while  every  one  is  ready  to  endorse  the  abstract 
proposition  that  instruction  fitting  youths  for  the 
business  of  life  is  of  high  importance,  or  even  to 
consider  it  of  supreme  importance ;  yet  scarcely  a:uy 
inquire  what  instruction  will  so  fit  them.  Jt  is  tree 
that  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic  are  taught  with 
an  intelligent  appreciation  of  their  uses ;  but  when 
we  have  said  this  we  have  said  nearly  all.  While 
the  great  bulk  of  what  else  is  acquired  has  no  bear- 
ing on  the  industrial  activities,  an  immensity  of  in- 
formation that  has  a  direct  bearing  on  the  industrial 
activities  is  entirely  passed  over. 

For,  leaving  out  only  some  very  small  classes 
what  are  all  men  employed  in?  They  are  employed 
in  the  production,  preparation,  and  distribution  of 
commodities.  And  on  what  does  efficiency  in  the 
production,  preparation,  and  distribution  of  commod- 
ities depend?  It  depends  on  the  use  of  methods 
fitted  to  the  respective  natures  of  these  commodi- 
ties; it  depends  on  an  adequate  knowledge  of  their 
physical,  chemical,  or  vital  properties,  as  the  case 
may  be;  that  is,  it  depends  on  Science.  This  order 
of  knowledge,  which  is  in  great  part  ignored  in  our 
school  courses,  in  the  order  of  knowledge  underlvinir 
the  right  performance  of  all  those  processes  by  which 
civilized  life  is  made  possible.  Undeniable  as  is  this 


WHAT  K$0  WLEDOE  18  OF  MOST  WORTHt  33 

truth,  and  thrust  upon  us  as  it  is  at  every  turn,  there 
seems  to  be  no  Jiving  consciousness  of  it :  its  very 
familiarity  makes  it  unregarded.  To  give  due  weignt 
to  our  argument,  we  must,  therefore,  realize  this 
truth  to  the  reader  by  a  rapid  review  of  the  facts. 

For  all  the  higher  arts  of  construction,  some  ac 
quaintance  with  Mathematics  is  indispensable.  The 
village  carpenter,  who,  lacking  rational  instruction, 
lays  out  his  work  by  empirical  rules  learnt  in  his 
apprenticeship,  equally  with  the  builder  of  a  Bri- 
tannia Bridge,  makes  hourly  reference  to  the  laws 
of  quantitative  relations.  The  surveyor  on  whose 
survey  the  land  is  purchased;  the  architect  in  de- 
signing a  mansion  to  be  built  on  it ;  the  builder  in 
preparing  his  estimates;  his  foreman  in  laying  out 
the  foundations ;  the  masons  in  cutting  the  stones ; 
and  the  various  artisans  who  put  up  the  fittings ;  are 
all  guided  by  geometrical  truths.  Rail  way -making 
is  regulated  from  beginning  to  end  by  mathematics: 
alike  in  the  preparation  of  plans  and  sections ;  in 
staking  out  the  line ;  in  the  mensuration  of  cuttings 
and  embankments ;  in  the  designing,  estimating,  and 
building  of  bridges,  culverts,  viaducts,  tunnels, 
stations.  And  similarly  with  the  harbors,  docks, 
piers,  and  various  engineering  and  architectural 
works  that  frin<r<  d*r  coasts  and  overspread  the  faca 
8 


M  EDUCATION. 

ot  the  country ;  as  well  as  the  mines  that  run  uncle* 
neath  it.  Out  of  geometry,  too,  as  applied  bo  ab- 
tronomy,  the  art  ot  navigation  has  grown ;  and  so, 
by  this  science,  has  been  made  possible  that  enor- 
mous foreign  commerce  which  supports  a  large  part 
of  our  population,  and  supplies  us  with  many  neces» 
saries  and  most  of  our  luxuries.  And  now-a-day» 
even  the  farmer,  for  the  correct  laying  out  of  his 
drains,  has  recourse  to  the  level — that  is,  to  geomefc. 
rical  principles.  When  from  those  divisions  ot 
mathematics  which  deal  with  space,  and  number,  some 
small  smattering  of  which  is  given  in  schools,  we 
turn  to  that  other  division  which  deals  with  force* 
of  which  even  a  smattering  is  scarcely  ever  given 
we  meet  with  another  large  class  of  activities  which 
this  science  presides  over.  On  the  application  of 
rational  mechanics  depends  the  success  of  nearly  all 
modern  manufacture.  The  properties  of  the  lever, 
che  wheel  and  axle,  etc.,  are  involved  in  every 
machine — every  machine  is  a  solidified  mechanical 
theorem ;  and  to  machinery  in  these  times  we  owe 
nearly  all  production.  Trace  the  history  of  the 
breakfast-roll.  The  soil  out  of  which  it  came  was 
drained  with  machine-made  tiles;  the  surface 
turned  over  by  a  machine  :  the  seed  was  put  in  by  a 
machine ;  the  wheat  was  reaped,  thrashed,  and  wia 


WHAT  PHOWLEDGE  IS  OF  MOST  WORTH t          35 

nowed  by  machines;  by  machinery  it  was  ground 
and  bolted ;  and  had  the  flour  been  sent  to  Gosport, 
it  might  have  been  made  into  biscuits  by  a  machine* 
Look  round  the  room  in  which  you  sit.  If  modern, 
probably  the  bricks  in  its  walls  were  machine-made ; 
by  machinery  the  flooring  was  sawn  and  planed,  the 
mantel-shelf  sawn  and  polished,  the  paper-hangings 
made  and  printed;  the  veneer  on  the  table,  the 
turned  legs  of  the  chairs,  the  carpet,  the  curtains, 
are  all  products  of  machinery.  And  your  clothing 
—plain,  figured,  or  printed — is  it  not  wholly  woven, 
nay,  perhaps  even  sewed  by  machinery?  And  the 
volume  you  are  reading — are  not  its  leaves  fabricated 
by  one  machine  and  covered  with  these  words  by 
another  ?  Add  to  which  that  for  the  means  of  dis- 
tribution over  both  land  and  sea,  we  are  similarly 
indebted.  And  then  let  it  be  remembered  that  ac- 
cording as  the  principles  of  mechanics  are  well  or 
fll  used  to  these  ends,  comes  success  or  failure — indi- 
vidual and  national.  The  engineer  who  misapplies 
his  formulae  for  the  strength  of  materials,  builds  a 
bridge  that  breaks  down.  The  manufacturer  whose 
apparatus  is  badly  devised,  cannot  compete  with  an- 
other whose  apparatus  wastes  less  in  friction  and  in- 
ertia. The  ship-builder  adhering  to  the  old  model, 
is  outsailed  by  one  who  builds  on  the  mechanically- 


46  EDUCATION. 

l 
justified  wave-line  principle.     And  as  the  ability  of 

a  nation  to  hold  its  own  against  other  nations  de- 
pends on  the  skilled  activity  of  its  units,  we  see 
that  on  such  knowledge  may  turn  the  national  fate. 
Judge  then  the  worth  of  mathematics. 

Pass  next  to  Physics.  Joined  with  mathematics, 
it  .has  given  us  the  steam-engine,  which  does  the 
work  of  millions  of  laborers.  That  section  of  phys 
ics  which  deals  with  the  laws  of  heat,  has  taught  us 
how  to  economize  fuel  in  our  various  industries ; 
how  to  increase  the  produce  of  our  smelting  fur- 
naces by  substituting  the  hot  for  the  cold  blast ;  how 
to  ventilate  our  mines;  how  to  prevent  explosions 
by  using  the  safety-lamp;  and,  through  the  ther- 
mometer, how  to  regulates  innumerable  processes. 
That  division  which  has  the  phenomena  of  light  for 
its  subject,  gives  eyes  to  the  old  and  the  myopic ; 
aids  through  the  microscope  in  detecting  diseasei 
and  adulterations ;  and  by  improved  light-house£ 
prevents  shipwrecks.  Researches  in  electricity  and 
magnetism  have  saved  incalculable  life  and  property 
by  the  compass ;  have  subserved  sundry  arts  by  the 
electrotype;  and  now,  in  the  telegraph,  have  sup 
plied  us  with  the  agency  by  which  for  the  future  all 
mercantile  transactions  will  be  regulated,  political 
intercourse  carried  on,  and  perhaps  national  uuarrels 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  IS  OF  MOST  WORTHt          37 

often  avoided.  While  in  the  details  of  indoor  life, 
from  the  improved  kitchen-range  up  to  the  stereo- 
scope on  the  drawing-room  table,  the  applications 
of  advanced  physics  underlie  our  comforts  and 
gratifications. 

Still  more  numerous  are  the  bearings  of  Chemistry 
on  those  activities  by  which  men  obtain  the  means 
af  living.  The  bleacher,  the  dyer,  the  calico-printer, 
are  severally  occupied  in  processes  that  are  well  or 
ill  done  according  as  they  do  or  do  not  conform  to 
chemical  laws.  The  economical  reduction  from 
their  ores  of  copper,  tin,  zinc,  lead,  silver,  iron,  are 
in  a  great  measure  questions  of  chemistry.  Sugar- 
refining,  gas-making,  soap-boiling,  gunpowder  manu- 
factuie,  are  operations  all  partly  chemical ;  as  are 
also  those  by  which  are  produced  glass  and  porce- 
lain. Whether  the  distiller's  work  stops  at  the  alco- 
holic fermentation  or  passes  into  the  acetous,  is  a 
chemical  question  on  which  hangs  his  profit  or  loss 
and  the  brewer,  if  his  business  is  sufficiently  large, 
finds  it  pay  to  keep  a  chemist  on  his  premises. 
Glance  through  a  work  on  technology,  and  it  be- 
comes  at  once  apparent  that  there  is  now  scarcely 
my  process  in  the  arts  or  manufactures  over  some 
part  of  which  chemistry  does  not  preside.  And 
then,  lastly,  we  come  to  the  fact  that  in  these  times, 


9k,  EDUCATION. 

I 

agriculture,  to  be  profitably  carried  on,  must  havt 
like  guidance.  The  analysis  of  manures  and  soils, 
their  adaptations  to  each  other ;  the  use  of  gypsum 
or  other  substance  for  fixing  ammonia  ;  the  utilization 
of  coprolites ;  the  production  of  artifical  manures — 
all  these  are  boons  of  chemistry  which  it  behoves 
the  farmer  to  acquaint  himself  with.  Be  it  in  the 
lucifer  match,  or  in  disinfected  sewage,  or  in  photo- 
graphs— in  bread  made  without  fermentation,  or  per- 
fumes extracted  from  refuse,  we  may  perceive  that 
chemistry  affects  all  our  industries;  and  that,  by 
consequence,  knowledge  of  it  concerns  every  one 
who  is  directly  or  indirectly  connected  with  our  in- 
dustries. 

And  then  the  science  of  life — Biology  •  does  not 
this,  too,  bear  fundamentally  upon  these  processes 
of  indirect  self-preservation  ?  With  what  we  ordi- 
narily call  manufactures,  it  has,  indeed,  little  con- 
aection ;  but  with  the  all-essential  manufacture — < 
that  of  food — it  is  inseparably  connected.  As  agri- 
culture must  conform  its  methods  to  the  phenomena 
of  vegetable  and  animal  life,  it  follows  necessarily 
that  the  science  of  these  phenomena  is  the  rationa? 
basis  of  agriculture.  Various  biological  truths  have 
indeed  been  empirically  established  and  acted  upon 
by  farmers  while  vet  <:^*B  has  been  no  conception 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  1L  OF  MOST  WOBTHt  39 

of  them  as  science :  such  as  that  particular  manures 
are  waited  to  particular  plants ;  that  crops  of  certain 
fcinds  unfit  the  soil  for  other  crops  ;  that  horses  can- 
not do  good  work  on  poor  food  ;  that  such  and  such 
diseases  of  cattle  and  sheep  are  caused  by  such  and 
>uch  conditions.  These,  and  the  every-day  knowl- 
edge which  the  agriculturist  gains  by  experience  re- 
specting the  right  management  of  plants  and  ani- 
mals, constitute  his  stock  of  biological  facts  ;  on  the 
largeness  of  which  greatly  depends  his  success.  And 
as  these  biological  facts,  scanty,  indefinite,  rudimen- 
tary, though  they  are,  aid  him  so  essentially ;  judge 
what  must  be  the  value  to  him  of  such  facts  when 
they  become  positive,  definite,  and  exhaustive.  In- 
deed, even  now  we  may  see  the  benefits  that  rational 
biology  is  conferring  on  him.  The  truth  that  the 
production  of  animal  heat  implies  waste  of  sub- 
stance, and  that,  therefore,  preventing  loss  of  heat 
prevents  the  need  for  extra  food — a  purely  theoreti* 
O&l  conclusion — now  guides  the  fattening  of  cattle: 
:  is  found  that  by  keeping  cattle  warm,  fodder  is 
saved.  Similarly  with  respect  to  variety  of  food. 
The  experiments  of  physiologists  have  shown  that 
not  only  is  change  of  diet  beneficial,  but  that  diges- 
tion is  facilitated  by  a -m  ixtuie  of  ingredients  in  each 
meal :  botb  which  trutt*  are  r*cw  influencing 


40  EDUCATION 

feeding.  The  discovery  that  a  disorder  known  at 
w  the  staggers,"  of  which  many  thousands  of  sheep 
liave  died  annually,  is  caused  by  an  entozoon  which 
presses  on  the  brain  ;  and  that  if  the  creature  is  ex- 
tracted through  the  softened  place  in  the  skull  which 
marks  its  position,  the  sheep  usually  recovers  ;  is  an- 
other debt  which  agriculture  owes  to  biology.  When 
we  observe  the  marked  contrast  between  our  farming 
and  farming  on  the  Continent,  and  remember  that  this 
contrast  is  mainly  due  to  the  far  greater  influence 
science  has  had  upon  farming  here  than  there  ;  and 
when  we  see  how,  daily,  competition  is  making  the 
adoption  of  scientific  methods  more  general  and 
necessary;  we  shall  rightly  infer  that  very  soon, 
agricultural  success  in  England  will  be  impossible 
without  a  competent  knowledge  of  animal  and  vege- 
table physiology. 

Yet  one  more  science  have  we  to  note  as  bearing 
directly  on  industrial  success — the  Science  of  So- 
oiety.  Whithout  knowing  it,  men  who  daily  look  at 
the  state  of  the  money-market,  glance  over  prices 
current,  discuss  the  probable  crops  of  corn,  cotton, 
jugar,  wool,  silk,  weigh  the  chances  of  war,  and  from 
all  those  data  decide  on  their  mercantile  operations, 
are  students  of  social  science :  empirical  and  blun- 
dering students  it  may  be  •  but  still,  students  who 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  IS  OF  MOST  WORTH t          41 

gain  the  prizes  or  are  plucked  of  their  profits,  ac- 
cording as  they  do  or  do  not  reach  the  right  con- 
clusion. Not  only  the  manufacturer  and  the  mer« 
chant  must  guide  their  transactions  by  calculations 
of  supply  and  demand,  based  on  numerous  facts, 
and  tacitly  recognizing  sundry  general  principles  of 
social  action ;  but  even  the  retailer  must  do  the 
like :  his  prosperity  very  greatly  depending  upon 
the  correctness  of  his  judgments  respecting  the 
future  wholesale  prices  and  the  future  rates  of  con- 
sumption. Manifestly,  all  who  take  part  in  the  en- 
tangled commercial  activities  of  a  community,  are 
vitally  interested  in  understanding  the  laws  accord- 
ing  to  which  those  activities  vary. 

Thus,  to  all  such  as  are  occupied  in  the  produc- 
tion,  exchange,  or  distribution  of  commodities,  ac- 
quaintance with  science  in  some  of  its  departments, 
is  of  fundamental  importance.  Whoever  is  irnme* 
diately  or  remotely  implicated  in  any  form  of  in- 
dustry (and  few  are  not)  has  a  direct  interest  in  un- 
derstanding something  of  the  mathematical,  physical^ 
and  chemical  properties  of  things ;  perhaps,  also,  has 
a  direct  interest  in  biology;  and  certainly  has  :n 
sociology.  Whether  he  does  or  does  not  succeed 
veil  in  that  indirect  self-preservation  which  we  call 
getting  a  good  livelihood,  depends  in  a  great  degree 


42  EDUCATION 

on  his  knowledge  of  one  or  more  of  tnese  sciences 
not,  it  may  be,  a  rational  knowledge ;  but  still  a 
knowledge,  though  empirical.  For  what  vre  cali 
learning  a  business,  really  implies  learning  the 
science  involved  in  it ;  though  not  perhaps  under  the 
name  of  science.  And  hence  a  grounding  in  science 
is  of  great  importance,  both  because  it  prepares  for 
all  this,  and  because  rational  knowledge  has  an  im 
mense  superiority  over  empirical  knowledge.  More- 
over, not  only  is  it  that  scientific  culture  is  requisite 
for  each,  that  he  may  understand  the  htnc  and  the  why 
of  the  things  and  processes  with  which  he  is  con- 
cerned as  maker  or  distributor;  but  it  is  often  of 
much  moment  that  he  should  understand  the  how  and 
the  why  of  various  other  things  and  processes.  In 
this  age  of  joint-stock  undertakings,  nearly  every 
man  above  the  laborer  is  interested  as  capitalist  in 
some  other  occupation  than  his  own;  and,  as  thus 
interested,  his  profit  or  loss  often  depends  on  his 
knowledge  of  the  sciences  bearing  on  this  other  oc- 
cupation. Here  is  a  mine,  in  the  sinking  of  which 
many  shareholders  ruined  themselves,  from  not 
knowing  that  a  certain  fossil  belonged  to  the  old  red 
sandstone,  below  which  no  coal  is  found.  Xot  many 
years  ago,  20,000?.  was  lost  in  the  prosecution  of  a 
scheme  for  collecting  the  alcohol  that  distils  fro*** 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  IS  OF  MOST  WORTH?          43 

Dread  in  baking :  all  which  would  have  been  saved 
iio  the  subscribers,  had  they  known  that  less  than  a 
hundredth  part  by  weight  of  the  flour  is  changed  in 
fermentation.  Numerous  attempts  have  been  made 
to  construct  electro-magnetic  engines,  in  the  hope  of 
superseding  steam  ;  but  had  those  who  supplied  the 
money,  understood  the  general  law  of  the  correla 
tion  and  equivalence  of  forces,  they  might  have  had 
better  balances  at  their  bankeru.  Daily  are  men  in- 
duced to  aid  in  carrying  out  inventions  which  a  mera 
tyro  in  science  could  show  to  be  futile.  Scarcely  a 
locality  but  has  its  history  of  fortunes  thrown  away 
over  some  impossible  project. 

And  if  already  the  loss  from  want  of  science  is  so 
frequent  and  so  great,  still  greater  and  more  fre- 
quent will  it  be  to  those  who  hereafter  lack  science. 
Just  as  fast  as  productive  processes  become  more 
SCL  itific,  which  competition  will  inevitably  make 
Shern  do  ;  and  just  as  fast  as  joint-stock  undertakings 
spread,  which  they  certainly  will ;  so  fast  will  scien- 
tific knowledge  grow  necessary  to  every  one. 

That  which  our  school  courses  leave  almost  en- 
iirely  out,  we  thus  find  to  be  that  which  most  nearly 
concerns  the  business  of  life.  All  our  industries 
Would  cease,  were  it  not  for  that  information  which 
•ten  begin  to  acquire  as  they  best  mav  after  the** 


14  EDUCATION. 

education  is  said  to  be  finished.  And  were  it  not  fot 
this  information,  that  has  been  from  age  to  age  ao 
stimulated  and  spread  by  unofficial  means,  these  in 
dustries  would  never  have  existed.  Had  there  been 
no  teaching  but  such  as  is  given  in  our  public 
schools,  England  would  now  be  what  it  was  in  feudal 
times.  That  increasing  acquaintance  with  the  laws 
of  phenomena  which  has  through  successive  ages  en- 
abled us  to  subjugate  Nature  to  our  needs,  and  in 
these  days  gives  the  common  laborer  comforts  which 
a  few  centuries  ago  kings  could  not  purchase,  is 
scarcely  in  any  degree  owed  to  the  appointed  means 
of  instructing  our  youth.  The  vital  knowledge — 
that  by  which  we  have  grown  as  a  nation  to  what  we 
are,  and  which  now  underlies  our  whole  existence,  is 
a  knowledge  that  has  got  itself  taught  in  nooks  and 
corners ;  while  the  ordained  agencies  for  teaching 
have  been  mumbling  little  else  but  dead  formulas. 

We  come  now  to  the  third  great  division  of  human 
aotivities — a  division  for  which  no  preparation  what- 
ever is  made.  If  by  some  strange  chance  not  a  ves- 
tige of  us  descended  to  the  remote  future  save  a  pile 
of  our  school-books  or  some  college  examination 
papers,  we  may  imagine  how  puzzled  an  antiquary  of 
the  period  would  be  on  finding  in  them  no  indica- 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  IS  OF  MOST  WORTH?       45 

tion  that  the  learners  were  ever  likely  to  be  parents. 
"This  must  have  been  ikecwrriculum  for  their  celi- 
bates, ' '  we  may  fancy  him  concluding.  ' '  I  perceive 
here  an  elaborate  preparation  for  many  things : 
especially  for  reading  the  books  of  extinct  nations 
and  of  co-existing  nations  (from  which  indeed  i* 
seems  clear  that  these  people  had  very  little  worth 
reading  in  their  own  tongue) ;  but  I  find  no  reference 
whatever  to  the  bringing  up  of  children.  They 
could  not  have  been  so  absurd  as  to  omit  all  training 
for  this  gravest  of  responsibilities.  Evidently  then, 
this  was  the  school  course  of  one  of  their  monastic 
orders. ' ' 

Seriously,  is  it  not  an  astonishing  fact,  that 
though  on  the  treatment  of  offspring  depend  their 
lives  or  deaths,  and  their  moral  welfare  or  ruin ;  yet 
not  one  word  of  instruction  on  the  treatment  of  off- 
spring is  ever  given  to  those  who  will  hereafter  be 
oarents?  Is  it  not  monstrous  that  the  fate  of  a  new 
generation  should  be  left  to  the  chances  of  unreason- 
ing custom,  impulse,  fancy — joined  with  the  sugges- 
tions of  ignorant  nurses  and  the  prejudiced  counsel 
of  grandmothers?  If  a  merchant  commenced  busi- 
ness without  any  knowledge  of  arithmetic  and  book- 
keeping, we  should  exclaim  at  his  folly,  and  look 
for  disastrous  consequences.  Or  if,  before  studying 


IS  EDUCATION. 

anatomy,  a  man  set  up  as  a  surgical  operator,  we  snould 
wonder  at  his  audacity  and  pity  his  patients.  But  that 
parents  should  begin  the  difficult  task  of  rearing 
children  without  ever  having  given  a  thought  to 
the  principles — physical,  moral,  or  intellectual — 
which  ought  to  guide  them,  excites  neithe"  surprise 
at  the  actors  nor  pity  for  their  victims. 

To  tens  of  thousands  that  are  killed,  add  hundred-: 
of  thousands  that  survive  with  feeble  constitutions. 
and  millions  that  grow  up  with  constitutions  not  so 
strong  as  they  should  be ;  and  you  will  have  some 
idea  of  the  curse  inflicted  on  their  offspring  by  par- 
ents ignorant  of  the  laws  of  life.  Do  but  consider 
for  a  moment  that  the  regimen  to  which  children  are 
subject  is  hourly  telling  upon  them  to  their  life-long 
Injury  or  benefit ;  and  that  there  are  twenty  ways  of 
going  wrong  to  one  way  of  going  right;  and  you 
will  get  some  idea  of  the  enormous  mischief  that  is 
almost  everywhere  inflicted  by  the  thoughtless,  hap- 
hazard system  in  common  use.  Is  it  decided  that  a 
boy  shall  be  clothed  in  some  flimsy  short  dress,  and 
be  allowed  to  go  playing  about  with  limbs  reddened 
by  cold  ?  Th»s  decision  will  tell  on  his  whole  future 
existence — either  in  illnesses ;  or  in  stunted  growth  i 
or  in  deficient  energy  ;  or  in  a  maturity  less  vigorous 
than  it  ought  to  have  been,  and  consequent  L 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  IS  OF  MOST  WORTH t          « 

ranees  to  success  and  happiness.  Are  children 
doomed  to  a  monotonous  dietary,  or  a  dietary  that  is 
deficient  in  nutritiveness  ?  Their  ultimate  physical 
power  and  the:  *  efficiency  as  men  and  womenv  will 
inevitably  be  more  ^  less  diminished  by  it.  Are 
they  forbidden  vociierous  play,  or  (being  too  il% 
clothed  to  bear  exposure),  are  they  kept  indoors  ix 
cold  weather  ?  They  are  certain  to  fall  below  that 
measure  of  health  and  strength  to  which  they  would 
else  have  attained.  When  sons  and  daughters  grow 
up  sickly  and  feeble,  parents  commonly  regard  the 
event  as  a  misfortune — as  a  visitation  of  Providence. 
Thinking  after  the  prevalent  chaotic  fashion,  they 
assume  that  these  evils  come  without  causes ;  or  that 
the  causes  are  supernatural.  Nothing  of  the  kind. 
In  somo  cases  the  causes  are  doubtless  inherited; 
but  in  diost  cases  foolish  regulations  are  the  causes. 
Very  generally  parents  themselves  are  responsible 
for  all  this  pain,  this  debility,  this  depression,  this 
misery.  They  have  undertaken  to  control  the  lives 
of  theit  offspring  from  hour  to  hour  ;  with  cruel  care- 
lessnes*  they  have  neglected  to  learn  anything  about 
these  rital  processes  which  they  are  unceasingly  af- 
testing  by  their  commands  and  prohibitions ;  in  utte> 
ignora"  ce  of  the  simplest  physiologic  laws,  they 
\  ien  year  bv  vear  undermining  the  constitu- 


46  EDUCATION. 

tions  of  their  children  ;  and  havd  so  inflicted  disease 
and  premature  death,  not  only  on  them  but  on  their 
descendants. 

Equally  great  are  the  ignorance  and  the  conse- 
quent  injury,  when  we  turn  from  physical  training 
to  moral  training.  Consider  the  young  mother  and 
her  nursery  legislation.  But  a  few  years  ago  she 
Wa.-  at  school,  where  her  memory  was  crammed  with 
yords,  and  names,  and  dates,  and  her  reflective  fac- 
ulties scarcely  in  the  slightest  degree  exercised-  - 
where  not  one  idea  was  given  her  respecting  the 
methods  of  dealing  with  the  opening  mind  of  child 
hood ;  and  where  her  discipline  did  not  in  the  least 
fit  her  for  thinking  out  methods  of  her  own.  The 
intervening  years  have  been  passed  in  practising 
music,  in  fancy-work,  in  novel-reading,  and  in  party- 
going;  no  thought  having  yet  been  given  to  the 
grave  responsibilities  of  maternity;  and  scarcely 
any  of  that  solid  intellectual  culture  obtained  \\  hi  3h 
would  be  some  preparation  for  such  responsibilities. 
And  now  see  her  with  an  unfolding  human  charac* 
ter  committed  to  her  charge — see  her  profoundly  ig- 
norant of  the  phenomena  with  which  she  has  to  deal, 
undertaking  to  do  that  which  can  be  done  but  im- 
perfectly even  with  the  aid  of  the  profoundest 
knowledge.  She  knows  nothing  about  the  nature 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  IS  OF  MOST  WORTH t          49 

of  the  emotions,  their  order  of  evolution,  their  func- 
tions, or  where  use  ends  and  abuse  begins.  She  is 
under  the  impression  that  some  of  the  feelings  are 
wholly  bad,  which  is  not  true  of  any  one  of  them  ; 
and  that  others  are  good,  however  far  they  may  be 
carried,  which  is  also  not  true  of  any  one  of  them. 
And  then,  ignorant  as  she  is  of  that  with  which  she 
has  to  deal,  she  is  equally  ignorant  of  the  effects 
that  will  be  produced  on  it  by  this  or  that  treatment. 
What  can  be  more  inevitable  than  the  disastrous  re- 
sults we  see  hourly  arising  ?  Lacking  knowledge  of 
mental  phenomena,  with  their  causes  and  conse- 
quences, her  interference  is  frequently  more  mis- 
chievous than  absolute  passivity  would  have  been. 
This  and  that  kind  of  action,  which  are  quite  nor- 
mal and  beneficial,  she  perpetually  thwarts ;  and  so 
diminishes  the  child's  happiness  and  profit,  injures 
its  temper  and  her  own,  and  produces  estrangement. 
Deeds  which  she  thinks  it  desirable  to  encourage, 
she  gets  performed  by  threats  and  bribes,  or  by  ex- 
citing a  desire  for  applause:  considering  little  what 
the  inward  motive  may  be,  so  long  as  the  outward 
conduct  conforms ;  and  thus  cultivating  hypocrisy, 
and  fear,  and  selfishness,  in  place  of  good  feeling. 
While  insisting  on  truthfulness,  she  constantly  sets 
an  example  of  untruth,  by  threatening  penalties 


60  EDUCATION. 

which  she  does  not  inflict.  While  inculcating  self 
Control,  she  hourly  visits  on  her  little  ones  angry 
scoldings  for  acts  that  do  not  call  for  them.  She 
has  not  the  remotest  idea  that  in  the  nursery,  as  in 
the  world,  that  alone  is  the  truly  salutary  discipline 
which  visits  on  all  conduct,  good  and  bad,  the  nat- 
ural consequences — the  consequences,  pleasurable  or 
painful,  which  in  the  nature  of  things  such  conduct 
tends  to  bring.  Being  thus  without  theoretic  guid- 
ance, and  quite  incapable  of  guiding  herself  by  trac- 
ing the  mental  processes  going  on  in  her  children, 
her  rule  is  impulsive,  inconsistent,  mischievous,  often, 
in  the  highest  degree;  and  would  indeed  be  gener 
ally  ruinous,  were  it  not  that  the  overwhelming 
tendency  of  the  growing  mind  to  assume  the  moral 
type  of  the  race,  usually  subordinates  all  minor  in- 
fluences. 

And  then  the  culture  of  the  intellect — is  not  this, 
too,  mismanaged  in  a  similar  manner?  Grant  that 
the  phenomena  of  intelligence  conform  to  laws; 
grant  that  the  evolution  of  intelligence  in  a  child 
also  conforms  to  laws;  and  it  follows  inevitably  tha* 
education  can  be  rightly  guided  only  by  a  knowledgt 
of  these  laws.  To  suppose  that  you  can  propcrlj 
regulate  this  process  of  forming  and  accumulating 
ideas,  without  understanding  the  nature  of  the  proc- 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  IS  OF  MOST  WORTH f          31 

ess,  is  absurd.  How  widely,  then,  must  teaching  as 
it  is,  differ  from  teaching  as  it  should  be ,  when 
^ardly  any  parents,  and  but  few  teachers,  know  any- 
thing about  \  ychology.  As  might  be  expected,  the 
system  is  grievously  at  fault,  alike  in  matter  and  in 
manner.  While  the  right  class  of  facts  :  3  withheld, 
the  wrong  class  is  forcibly  administered  in  the  wrong 
way  and  in  the  wrong  order.  With  that  common 
limited  idea  of  education  which  confines  it  to  knowl 
edge  gained  from  books,  parents  thrust  primers  intc 
the  hands  of  their  little  ones  years  too  soon,  to  their 
great  injury.  Not  recognizing  the  truth  that  the 
function  of  books  is  supplementary — that  they  form 
an  indirect  means  to  knowledge  when  direct  means 
fail — a  means  of  seeing  through  other  men  what  you 
cannot  see  for  yourself;  they  are  eager  to  give 
second-hand  facts  in  place  of  first-hand  facts.  Not 
perceiving  the  enormous  value  of  that  spontaneous 
education  which  goes  on  in  early  years — not  perceiv- 
ing that  a  child's  restless  observation,  instead  of 
being  ignored  or  checked,  should  be  diligently  ad- 
ministered to  i.iid  made  as  accurate  and  complete  as 
possible ;  they  insist  on  occupying  its  eyes  and 
chou^hts  with  things  that  are,  for  the  time  being, 
imcornprehensible  and  repugnant.  Possessed  by  a 
superstition  which  worships  the  symbols  of  knowl 


56  EL  (/G427DA. 

edge  inset**.  »  the  knowledge  itseu,  w^  do  not  see 
that  only  when  his  acquaintance  with  the  objects 
and  processes  of  the  household,  the  streets,  and  the 
fields,  is  becoming  tolerably  exhaust  /e — only  then 
should  a  child  be  introduced  to  the  new  sources  of 
information  which  books  supply  :  and  this,  not  only 
tbecause  immediate  cognition  is  of  far  greater  vaiue 
than  mediate  cognition  ;  but  alsos  because  the  words 
contained  in  books  can  be  rightly  interpreted  into 
ideas,  only  in  proportion  to  the  antecedent  exper- 
ience of  things.  Observe  next,  that  this  formal  in- 
struction, far  too  soon  commenced,  is  carried  on  with 
but  little  reference  to  the  laws  of  mental  develop- 
ment Intellectual  progress  is  of  necessity  from  the 
concrete  to  the  abstract.  But  regardless  of  this, 
highly  abstract  subjects,  such  as  grammar,  which 
should  come  quite  late,  are  begun  quite  early.  Politi- 
cal geography,  dead  and  uninteresting  to  a  child, 
and  which  should  be  an  appendage  of  sociological 
studies,  is  commenced  betimes ;  while  physical  geog- 
raphy, comprehensible  and  comparatively  attractive 
to  a  child,  is  in  great  part  passed  over.  Nearly  every 
^ubjsct  dealt  with  is  arranged  in  abnormal  order? 
definitions,  and  rules,  and  principles  being  put  first* 
instead  of  being  disclosed,  as  they  are  in  the  ordei 
of  nature,  through  the  study  of  oases.  And  then, 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  IS  OF  MOST  WORTH f          53 

ptrvading  the  whole,  is  the  vicious  system  of  rote 
learning — a  system  of  sacrificing  the  spirit  to  the  let- 
ter. See  the  results.  What  with  perceptions  un- 
naturally dulled  by  early  thwarting,  and  a  coerced 
attention  to  books — what  with  the  mental  confusion 
produced  by  teaching  subjects  before  they  can  be 
understood,  and  in  each  of  them  giving  generaliza- 
dons  before  the  facts  of  which  these  are  the  general- 
izations— what  with  making  the  pupil  a  mere  passive 
recipient  of  other's  ideas,  and  not  in  the  least  lead- 
ing him  to  be  an  active  inquirer  or  self-instructor — 
and  what  with  taxing  the  faculties  to  excess ;  there 
are  very  few  minds  that  become  as  efficient  as  they 
might  be.  Examinations  being  once  passed,  books 
are  laid  aside ;  the  greater  part  of  what  has  been 
acquired,  being  unorganized,  soon  drops  out  of  rec- 
ollection ;  what  remains  is  mostly  inert — the  art  of 
applying  knowledge  not  having  been  cultivated; 
and  there  is  but  little  power  either  of  accurate  ob- 
servation or  independent  thinking.  To  all  which 
add,  that  while  much  of  the  information  gained  is  of 
relatively  small  value,  an  immense  mass  of  informa- 
tion of  transcendent  value  is  entirely  passed  over. 

Thus  we  find  the  facts  to  be  such  as  might  have 
oeen  inferred  &  priori.  The  training  of  children — 
physical,  moral,  and  intellectual — is  dreadfullv  de- 


54  EDUCATION. 

fective.  And  in  great  measure  it  is  so,  because 
.parents  are  devoid  of  that  knowledge  by  which  this 
.training  can  alone  be  rightly  guided.  What  is  to  be 
expected  when  one  of  the  most  intricate  of  problems 
is  undertaken  by  those  who  have  given  scarcely  a 
thought  to  the  principles  on  which  its  solution  de- 
pends ?  For  shoe-making  or  house-building,  for  the 
management  of  a  ship  or  a  locomotive-engine,  a  long 
apprenticeship  is  needful.  Is  it,  then,  that  the  un- 
folding of  a  human  being  in  body  and  mind,  is  so 
comparatively  simple  a  process,  that  any  one  may 
superintend  and  regulate  it  with  no  preparation 
whatever  ?  If  not — if  the  process  is  with  one  excep- 
tion more  complex  than  any  in  Nature,  and  the  task 
of  administering  to  it  one  of  surpassing  difficulty ; 
is  it  not  madness  to  make  no  provision  for  such  a 
task?  Better  sacrifice  accomplishments  than  omit 
this  all-essential  instruction.  When  a  father,  acting 
on  false  dogmas  adopted  without  examination,  has 
alienated  his  sons,  driven  them  into  rebellion  by  his 
harsh  treatment,  ruined  them,  and  made  himself 
miserable ;  he  might  reflect  that  the  study  of  Ethol- 
ogy would  have  been  worth  pursuing,  even  at  the 
cost  of  knowing  nothing  about  ^Eschylus.  When 
a  mother  is  mourning  over  a  first-born  that  has  sunk 
under  the  sequelae  of  scarlet-fever — when  perhaps  a 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  IS  OP  MOST  WORTH?  58 

Candid  medical  man  lias  confirmed  her  suspicion  that 
lier  child  would  have  recovered  had  not  its  system 
been  enfeebled  by  over-study — when  she  is  prostrate 
under  the  pangs  of  combined  grief  and  remorse  ;  it 
is  but  a  small  consolation  that  she  can  read  Dante  in 
the  original. 

Thus  we  see  that  for  regulating  the  third  great  di- 
vision of  human  activities,  a  knowledge  of  the  laws 
of  life  is  the  one  thing  needful.  Some  acquaintance 
writh  the  first  principles  of  physiology  and  the  ele- 
mentary truths  of  psychology  is  indispensable  for  the 
light  bringing  up  of  children.  We  doubt  not  that 
this  assertion  will  by  many  be  read  with  a  smile. 
That  parents  in  general  should  be  expected  to  ac- 
quire a  knowledge  of  subjects  so  abstruse,  will  seem 
to  them  an  absurdity.  And  if  we  proposed  that  an 
exhaustive  knowledge  of  these  subjects  should  be 
obtained  by  all  fathers  and  mothers,  the  absurdity 
Would  indeed  be  glaring  enough.  But  we  do  not. 
'Qeneral  principles  only,  accompanied  by  such  de- 
tailed illustrations  as  may  be  needed  to  make  them 
understood,  would  suffice.  And  these  might  be 
readily  taught — if  not  rationally,  then  dogmatically. 
Be  this  as  it  may,  however,  here  are  the  indisputable 
facts. — that  the  development  of  children  in  mind 
and  body  rigorously  obey?  certain  laws  ;  that  unless 


56  EDUCATION. 

these  laws  are  in  some  degree  conformed  to  by  pa*- 
3nts,  death  is  inevitable ;  that  unless  they  are  in  a 
*reat  degree  conformed  to,  there  must  result  serious 
physical  and  mental  defects;  and  that  only  when 
they  are  completely  conformed  to,  can  a  perfect  ma- 
turity be  reached.  Judge,  then,  whether  all  who 
aiay  one  day  be  parents,  should  not  strive  with  some 
anxiety  to  learn  what  these  laws  are. 

From  the  parental  functions  let  us  pass  now  to  the 
functions  of  the  citizen.  We  have  here  to  inquire 
wrhat  knowledge  best  fits  a  man  for  the  discharge  of 
these  functions.  It  cannot  be  alleged,  as  in  the  last 
case,  that  the  need  for  knowledge  fitting  him  for 
these  functions  is  wholly  overlooked  ;  for  our  school 
courses  contain  certain  studies  which,  nominally  at 
least,  bear  upon  political  and  social  duties.  Of  these 
the  only  one  that  occupies  a  prominent  place  is  Hit- 
tory. 

But  as  already  more  than  once  hinted,  the  historic 
information  commonly  given  is  almost  valueless  for 
purposes  of  guidance.  Scarcely  any  of  the  facts  set 
down  in  our  school-histories,  and  very  few  even  of 
those  contained  in  the  more  elaborate  works  written 
for  adults,  give  any  clue  to  the  right  principles  of 
political  action.  The  Diographies  of  monarchs  (and 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  IS  OF  MOST  WORTH ?       57 

our  children  commonly  learn  little  else)  inrow 
scarcely  any  light  upon  the  science  of  society.  Fa 
miliarity  with  court  intrigues,  plots,  usurpations,  or 
the  like,  and  with  ail  the  personalities  accompanying 
them,  aids  very  little  in  elucidating  the  principles, 
on  which  national  welfare  depends.  We  read  of 
some  squabble  for  power,  that  it  led  to  a  pitched 
battle ;  that  such  and  such  were  the  names  of  the 
generals  and  their  leading  subordinates ;  that  they 
had  each  so  many  thousand  infantry  and  cavalry, 
and  so  many  cannon ;  that  they  arranged  their  forces 
in  this  arid  that  order;  that  they  manoeuvred,  at- 
tacked, and  fell  back  in  certain  ways ;  that  at  this 
part  of  the  day  such  disasters  were  sustained  and  at 
that  such  advantages  gained ;  that  in  one  particular 
movement  some  leading  officer  fell,  while  in  another 
a  certain  regiment  was  decimated ;  that  after  all  the 
changing  fortunes  of  the  fight,  the  victory  was 
gained  by  this  or  that  army ;  and  that  so  many  wert 
killed  and  wounded  on  each  side,  and  so  many  cap 
tured  by  the  conquerors.  And  now,  out  of  the  ac 
cumulated  details  which  make  up  the  narrative,  say 
w  hich  it  is  that  helps  you  in  deciding  on  your  con- 
duct as  a  citizen.  Supposing  even  that  you  had  dili- 
gently read,  not  only  "  The  Fifteen  Decisive  Battles 
of  the  "World,"  but  accounts  of  all  other  battles  that 


58  EDUCATION. 

history  mentions  ;  how  much  more  judicious  would 
your  vote  be  at  the  next  election  ?  "  But  these  ari 
facts — interesting  facts,"  you  say.  Without  doubt 
they  are  facts  (such,  at  least,  as  are  not  wholly  01 
partially  fictions) ;  and  to  many  they  may  be  inter- 
esting facts.  But  this  by  no  means  implies  that  they 
are  valuable.  Factitious  or  morbid  opinion  often 
gives  seeming  value  to  things  tnat  have  scarcely 
any.  A  tulipomaniac  will  not  part  with  a  choice 
bulb  for  its  weight  in  gold.  To  another  man  an  ugly 
piece  of  cracked  old  china  seems  his  most  desirable 
possession.  And  there  are  those  who  give  high 
prices  for  the  relics  of  celebrated  murderers.  Will 
it  be  contended  that  these  tastes  are  any  measures  of 
value  in  the  things  that  gratify  them  ?  If  not,  then 
it  must  be  admitted  that  the  liking  felt  for  certain 
classes  of  historical  facts  is  no  proof  of  their  worth; 
and  that  we  must  test  their  worth  as  we  test  the 
Worth  of  other  facts,  by  asking  to  what  uses  they  are 
applicable.  Were  some  one  to  tell  you  that  your 
neighbor's  cat  kittened  yesterday,  you  would  say  the 
information  was  worthless.  Fact  though  it  might 
be,  you  would  say  it  was  an  utterly  useless  fact — a 
fact  that  could  in  no  way  influence  your  actions  in 
life — a  fact  that  would  not  help  you  in  learning  how 
to  live  completely.  Well,  apply  the  same  test  to  the 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  IS  OF  MOST  WORTH t          5» 

great  mass  of  historical  facts,  and  you  will  get  the 
same  results.  They  are  facts  from  which  no  conclu- 
sions can  be  drawn — unorganizable  facts ;  and  there- 
fore facts  which  can  be  of  no  service  in  establishing 
principles  of  conduct,  which  is  the  chief  use  of  facts. 
Read  them,  if  you  like,  for  amusement;  but  do  not 
flatter  yourself  they  are  instructive. 

That  which  constitutes  History,  properly  so  called, 
is  in  great  part  omitted  from  works  on  the  subject, 
Only  of  late  years  have  historians  commenced  giving 
us,  in  any  considerable  quantity,  the  truly  valuable 
information.  As  in  past  ages  the  king  was  every- 
thing and  the  people  nothing ,  so,  in  past  histories 
the  doings  of  the  king  fill  the  entire  picture,  to 
which  the  national  life  forms  but  an  obscure  back- 
ground. While  only  now,  when  the  welfare  of  na- 
tions rather  than  of  rulers  is  becoming  the  dominant 
idea,  are  historians  beginning  to  occupy  themselves 
wiuh  the  phenomena  of  social  progress.  That  which 
jt  really  concerns  us  to  know,  is  the  natural  history 
of  society.  We  want  all  facts  which  help  us  to  un- 
derstand how  a  nation  has  grown  and  organized 
itself.  Among  these,  let  us  of  course  have  an  ac- 
count of  *.ts  government ;  with  as  little  as  may  be  ol 
gossip  about  the  men  who  officered  it,  and  as  much 
as  possible  about  the  structure.  uriuciples,  methods, 


60  EDUCATION. 

prejudices,  corruptions,  etc.,  which  it  exhibited :  and 
iet  this  account  not  only  include  the  natnre  and  ac- 
tions of  the  central  government,  but  also  those  oi 
local  governments,  down  to  their  minutest  ramifica- 
tions. Let  us  of  course  also  have  a  parallel  descrip- 
tion of  the  ecclesiastical  government — its  organiza- 
tion, its  conduct,  its  power,  its  relations  to  the  State : 
and  accompanying  this,  the  ceremonial,  creed,  and 
religious  ideas — not  only  those  nominally  believed, 
but  those  really  believed  and  acted  upon.  Let  us  at 
the  same  time  be  informed  of  the  control  exercised 
by  class  over  class,  as  displayed  in  all  social  observ- 
ances— in  titles,  salutations,  and  forms  of  address. 
Let  us  know,  too,  what  were  all  the  other  customs 
which  regulated  the  popular  life  out  of  doors  and  in- 
doors: including  those  which  concern  the  relations 
of  the  sexes,  and  the  relations  of  parents  to  children. 
Phe  superstitions,  also,  from  the  more  important 
myths  down  to  the  charms  in  common  use,  should  be 
indicated.  Next  should  come  a  delineation  of  the 
industrial  system  ;  showing  to  what  extent  the  di- 
vision of  labor  was  carried ;  how  trades  were  regu- 
lated, whether  by  caste,  guilds,  or  otherwise ;  what 
was  the  connection  between  employers  and  em- 
ployed ;  what  were  the  agencies  for  distributing  com- 
modities, what  were  the  means  of  communication  ? 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  It  OF  MOST  WORTH f          «1 

Ifhat  was  the  circulating  medium.  Accompanying 
all  which  should  come  an  account  of  the  industrial 
arts  technically  considered  :  stating  the  processes  ic 
use,  and  the  quality  of  the  products.  Further,  the 
intellectual  condition  of  the  nation  in  its  various 
grades  should  be  depicted :  not  only  with  respect  to 
the  kind  and  amount  of  education,  but  with  respect 
to  the  progress  made  in  science,  and  the  prevailing 
manner  of  thinking.  The  degree  of  aesthetic  cul- 
ture, as  displayed  in  architecture,  sculpture,  paint- 
ing, dress,  music,  poetry,  and  fiction,  should  be  de- 
scribed. Nor  should  there  be  omitted  a  sketch  of 
the  daily  lives  of  the  people — their  food,  their  homes, 
and  their  amusements.  And  lastly,  to  connect  the 
whole,  should  be  exhibited  the  morals,  theoretical 
and  practical,  of  all  classes:  as  indicated  in  their 
laws,  habits,  proverbs,  deeds.  All  these  facts,  given 
with  as  much  brevity  as  consists  with  clearness  and 
accuracy,  should  be  so  grouped  and  arranged  that 
they  may  be  comprehended  in  their  ensemble  ;  and 
thus  may  be  contemplated  as  mutually  dependent 
parts  of  one  great  whole.  The  aim  should  be  so  to 
present  them  that  we  may  readily  trace  the  consensus 
subsisting  among  them  ;  with  the  view  of  learning 
what  social  phenomena  co-exist  with  what  others. 
And  then  the  corresponding  delineations  of  succeed- 


82  EDUCATION. 

Ing  ages  should  be  so  managed  as  to  show  us,  ai 
clearly  as  may  be,  how  each  belief,  institution,  cus- 
tom and  arrangement  was  modified ;  and  how  tha 
consensus  of  preceding  structures  and  functions  wat 
developed  into  the  consensus  of  succeeding  ones. 
Such  alone  is  the  kind  of  information  respecting  past 
times,  which  can  be  of  service  to  the  citizen  for  the 
regulation  of  his  conduct.  The  only  history  that  is 
jf  practical  value,  is  what  may  be  called  Descriptive 
Sociology.  And  the  highest  office  which  the  histor- 
ian can  discharge,  is  that  of  so  narrating  the  lives  of 
nations,  as  to  furnish  materials  for  a  Comparative 
Sociology ;  and  for  the  subsequent  determination  of 
the  ultimate  laws  to  which  social  phenomena  con- 
form. 

But  now  mark,  that  even  supposing  an  adequate 
stock  of  this  truly  valuable  historical  knowledge  has 
been  acquired,  it  is  of  comparatively  little  use  with- 
out the  key.  And  the  key  is  to  be  found  only  in 
Science.  Without  an  acquaintance  with  the  general 
truths  of  biology  and  psychology,  rational  interpreta- 
tion of  social  phenomena  is  impossible.  Only  in 
proportion  as  men  obtain  a  certain  rude,  empirical 
knowledge  of  human  nature,  are  they  enabled  to  un- 
derstand even  the  simplest  facts  of  social  life  :  as,  for 
instance,  the  relation  between  supply  and  demand 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  IS  OF  MOST  WORTH t          63 

And  if  not  even  the  most  elementary  truths  of  soci- 
ology can  be  reached  until  some  knowledge  is  ob- 
tained of  how  men  generally  think,  feel,  and  act  un- 
der given  circumstances ;  then  it  is  manifest  that 
there  can  be  nothing  like  a  wide  comprehension  of 
sociology,  unless  through  a  competent  knowledge  of 
man  in  all  his  faculties,  bodily  and  mental.  Con* 
aider  the  matter  in  the  abstract,  and  this  conclusion 
is  self-evident.  Thus  : — Society  is  made  up  of  indi- 
viduals ;  all  that  is  done  in  society  is  done  by  the 
combined  actions  of  individuals ;  and  therefore,  in 
individual  actions  only  can  be  found  the  solutions 
of  social  phenomena.  But  the  actions  of  individuals 
depend  on  the  laws  of  tneir  natures ;  and  their  ac- 
tions cannot  be  understood  until  these  laws  are  un- 
derstood. These  laws,  however,  when  re.iuced  to 
their  simplest  expression,  are  found  to  depend  on 
the  laws  of  body  and  mind  in  general.  Hence  it 
necessarily  follows,  that  biology  and  psychology  are 
indispensable  as  interpreters  of  sociology.  Or,  to 
state  the  conclusions  still  more  simply  : — all  social 
phenomena  are  phenomena  of  life — are  the  most 
complex  manifestations  of  life — are  ultimately  de- 
pendent on  the  laws  of  life — and  can  be  understood 
only  when  the  laws  of  life  are  understood.  Thus, 
tuen,  we  see  that  for  the  regulation  of  this  fourth 


$4  EDUCATION. 

division  of  numan  activities,  we  are,  as  before,  de« 
pendent  on  Science.  Of  the  knowledge  commonly 
imparted  in  educational  courses,  very  little  is  of  nny 
service  in  guiding  a  man  in  his  conduct  as  a  citizen. 
Only  a  small  part  of  the  history  he  reads  is  of  prac 
tical  value  ;  and  of  this  small  part  he  is  not  preparec. 
to  make  proper  use.  He  commonly  lacks  not  only 
the  materials  for,  but  the  very  conception  of,  de 
scriptive  sociology  ;  and  he  also  lacks  that  knowledge 
of  the  organic  sciences,  without  which  even  de- 
scriptive sociology  can  give  him  but  little  aid. 

And  now  we  come  to  that  remaining  division  of 
human  life  which  includes  the  relaxations,  pleasures, 
and  amusements  filling  leisure  hours.  After  consid- 
ering what  training  best  fits  for  self-preservation,  for 
the  obtainment  of  sustenance,  for  the  discharge  of 
parental  duties,  and  for  the  regulation  of  social  and 
political  conduct;  we  have  now  to  consider  what 
training  best  fits  for  the  miscellaneous  ends  not  in- 
cluded in  these — for  the  enjoyments  of  Nature,  of 
Literature,  and  of  the  Fine  Arts,  in  all  their  forms. 
Postponing  them  as  we  do  to  things  that  bear  more 
yitally  upon  human  welfare;  and  bringing  every 
thing,  as  we  have,  to  the  test  of  actual  value  ;  it  will 
perhaps  be  inferred  that  we  are  inclined  to  slight 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  IS  OF  MOST  WORTH t          65 

these  less  essential  thii  gs.  No  greater  mistake  could 
be  made,  however.  We  yield  to  none  in  the  value  we 
attach  to  aesthetic  culture  and  its  pleasures.  With- 
out painting,  sculpture,  music,  poetrj%  and  the  emo* 
tions  produced  by  natural  beauty  of  every  kind,  life 
would  lose  half  its  charm.  So  far  from  thinking  that 
the  training  and  gratification  of  the  tastes  are  unim- 
portant, we  believe  the  time  will  come  when  they 
will  occupy  a  much  larger  share  of  human  life  than 
now.  When  the  forces  of  Nature  have  been  fully 
conquered  to  man's  use — when  the  means  of  produc- 
tion have  been  brought  to  perfection — when  labor 
has  been  economized  to  the  highest  degree — when 
education  has  been  so  systematized  that  a  prepara- 
tion for  the  more  essential  activities  may  be  made 
with  comparative  rapidity — and  when,  consequently, 
there  is  a  great  increase  of  spare  time  ;  then  will  the 
poetry,  both  of  Art  and  Nature,  rightly  fill  a  large 
space  in  the  minds  of  all. 

But  it  is  one  thing  to  admit  that  aesthetic  culture 
is  in  a  high  degree  conducive  to  human  happiness 
and  another  thing  to  admit  that  it  is  a  fundamental 
requisite  to  human  happiness.  However  important 
it  may  be,  it  must  yield  precedence  to  those  kinds  of 
culture  which  bear  more  directly  upon  the  duties  of 
life.  As  before  hinted,  literature  and  the  fine  arts 
6 


86  EDUCATION. 

are  made  possible  by  those  activities  which  make  ind> 
vidual  and  social  life  possible  ;  and  manifestly,  that 
which  is  made  possible,  must  be  postponed  to  that 
which  makes  it  possible.  A  florist  cultivates  a  plant 
for  the  sake  of  its  flower ;  and  regards  the  roots  and 
leaves  as  of  value,  chiefly  because  they  are  instru- 
mental in  producing  the  flower.  But  while,  as  an 
ultimate  product,  the  flower  is  the  thing  to  which 
everything  else  is  subordinate,  the  florist  very  well 
knows  that  the  root  and  leaves  are  intrinsically  of 
greater  importance  ;  because  on  them  the  evolution 
of  the  flower  depends.  He  bestows  every  care  in 
rearing  a  healthy  plant;  and  knows  it  would  be 
folly  if,  in  his  anxiety  to  obtain  the  flower,  he  were 
to  neglect  the  plant.  Similarly  in  the  case  before  us. 
Architecture,  sculpture,  painting,  music,  poetry,  etc., 
may  be  truly  called  the  efflorescence  of  civilized  life. 
But  even  supposing  them  to  be  of  such  transcendent 
worth  as  to  subordinate  the  civilized  life  out  of  which 
they  grow  (which  can  hardly  be  asserted),  it  will  still 
be  admitted  that  the  production  of  a  healthy  civil- 
ized life  must  be  the  first  consideration  ;  and  that  the 
knowledge  conducing  to  this  must  occupy  the  high- 
est place. 

And  here  we  see  most  distinctly  the  vice  o'  our 
educational  system.    It  neglects  the  piant  for  the 


WHA  T  KNO  WLEDGE  IS  OF  MOST  WORTH t  ffj 

sake  of  the  flower.  In  anxiety  for  elegance,  it  for- 
gets substance.  While  it  gives  no  knowledge  con- 
ducive  to  self-preservation — while  of  knowledge  that 
facilitates  gaining  a  livelihood  it  gives  but  the  rudi- 
ments, and  leaves  the  greater  part  to  be  picked  up 
any  how  in  after  life — while  for  the  discharge  of 
parental  functions  it  makes  not  the  slightest  pre« 
vision — and  while  for  the  duties  of  citizenship  it 
prepares  by  imparting  a  mass  of  facts,  most  of  which 
are  irrelevant,  and  the  rest  without  a  key ;  it  is  dil- 
igent in  teaching  everything  that  adds  to  refinement, 
polish,  eclat.  However  fully  we  may  admit  that 
extensive  acquaintance  with  modern  languages  is  a 
valuable  accomplishment,  which,  through  reading, 
conversation,  and  travel,  aids  in  giving  a  certain 
finish ;  it  by  no  means  follows  that  this  result  is 
rightly  purchased  at  the  cost  of  that  vitally  import- 
ant knowledge  sacrificed  to  it.  Supposing  it  true 
that  classical  education  conduces  to  elegance  and 
correctness  of  style ;  it  cannot  be  said  that  elegance 
and  correctness  of  style  are  comparable  in  import- 
ance to  a  familiarity  with  the  principles  that  should 
guide  the  rearing  of  children.  Grant  that  the  taste 
may  be  greatly  improved  by  reading  all  the  poetry 
written  in  extinct  languages ;  yet  it  is  not  to  be 
inferred  that  sue  a  improvement  of  taste  is  equiva- 


•ft  EDUCATION 

tent  in  value  to  an  acquaintance  with  the  laws  ol 
health.  Accomplishments,  the  fine  arts,  belles-lettres^ 
and  all  those  things  which,  as  we  say,  constitute  the 
efflorescence  of  civilization,  should  be  wholly  sub- 
ordinate to  that  knowledge  and  discipline  in  which 
civilization  rests.  As  they  occupy  the  leisure  part  of 
so  should  they  occupy  the  leisure  part  of  education* 


Recognizing  ams  the  true  position  of  aesthetics, 
and  holding  that  while  the  cultivation  of  them 
should  form  a  part  of  education  from  its  commence* 
ment,  such  cultivation  should  be  subsidiary  ;  we 
have  now  to  inquire  what  knowledge  is  of  most  use 
to  this  end  —  what  knowledge  best  fits  for  this  re- 
maining sphere  of  activity.  To  this  question  the 
answer  is  still  the  same  as  heretofore.  Unexpected 
as  the  assertion  may  be,  it  is  nevertheless  true,  that 
the  highest  Art  of  every  kind  is  based  upon  Science 
—that  without  Science  there  can  be  neither  perfect 
production  nor  full  appreciation.  Science  in  that 
limited  technical  acceptation  current  in  society,  may 
not  have  been  possessed  by  many  artists  of  high 
repute  ;  but  acute  observers  as  they  have  been,  they 
have  always  possessed  a  stock  of  those  empirical 
generalizations  which  constitute  science  in  its  lowest 
phase;  and  they  have  habitually  fallen  far  belo* 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  IS  OF  MOST.   WORTHt          88 

perfection,  partly  because  their  generalizations  were 
comparatively  few  and  inaccurate.  That  science^ 
necessarily  underlies  the  fine  arts,  becomes  manifest, 
d  priori,  when  we  remember  that  art-products  are  all 
more  or  less  representative  of  objective  or  subjective 
phenomena ;  that  they  can  be  true  only  in  propor- 
tion as  they  conform  to  the  laws  of  these  phenom- 
ena; and  that  before  they  can  thus  conform  the 
artist  must  know  what  these  laws  are.  That  this  h 
priori  conclusion  tallies  with  experience  we  shall 
soon  see. 

Youths  preparing  for  the  practice  of  sculpture, 
have  to  acquaint  themselves  with  the  bones  and 
muscles  of  the  human  frame  in  their  distribution, 
attachments,  and  movements.  This  is  a  portion  of 
science ;  and  it  ha^  been  found  needful  to  impart  it 
for  the  prevention  of  those  many  errors  which  sculp- 
tors who  do  not  possess  it  commit.  For  the  preven- 
tion of  other  mistakes,  a  knowledge  of  mechanical 
principles  is  requisite ;  and  such  knowledge  not 
being  usually  possessed,  grave  mechanical  mistakes 
are  frequently  made.  Take  an  instance.  For  the 
stability  of  a  figure  it  is  needful  that  the  perpendic- 
ular from  the  centre  of  gravity — "  the  line  of  direc- 
tion," as  it  is  called — should  fall  within  the  base  of 
support ;  and  hence  it  happen*,  that  when  a  man 


70  EDUCATION. 

assumes  the  attitude  known  as  "  standing  at  ease," 
in  which  one  leg  is  straightened  and  the  other  re- 
laxed, the  line  of  direction  falls  within  the  foot  of 
the  straightened  leg.  But  sculptors  unfamiliar  with 
the  theory  of  equilibrium,  not  uncommonly  so  repre- 
sent this  attitude,  that  the  line  of  direction  falls 
midway  between  the  feet.  Ignorance  of  the  laws  of 
momentum  leads  to  analogous  errors :  as  witness  the 
admired  Discobolus,  which,  as  it  is  posed,  must  in- 
evitably fall  forward  the  moment  the  quoit  is  deliv- 
ered. 

In  painting,  the  necessity  for  scientific  knowledge, 
empirical  if  not  rational,  is  still  more  conspicuous. 
In  what  consists  the  grotesqueness  of  Chinese  pic- 
tures, unless  in  their  utter  disregard  of  the  laws  of 
appearances — in  their  absurd  linear  perspective,  and 
their  want  of  aerial  perspective  ?  In  what  are  the 
drawings  of  a  child  so  faulty,  if  not  in  a  similar 
'•bsence  of  truth — an  absence  arising,  in  great  part, 
from  ignorance  of  the  way  in  which  the  aspects  of 
things  vary  with  the  conditions  ?  Do  but  remembei 
the  books  and  lectures  by  which  students  are  in- 
structed ;  or  consider  the  criticisms  of  Ruskin ;  or 
look  at  the  doings  of  the  Pre-Raffaelites ;  and  you 
will  see  that  progress  in  painting  implies  increasing 
knowledge  of  how  effects  in  Nature  aro  produced. 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  IS  OF  MOST  WORTH f          71 

The  most  diligent  observation,  if  not  aided  by 
science,  fails  to  preserve  from  error.  Every  painter 
will  indorse  the  assertion  that  unless  it  is  known 
what  appearances  must  exist  under  given  circum- 
stances, they  often  will  not  be  perceived ;  and  to 
*now  what  appearances  must  exist,  is,  in  so  far,  to 
understand  the  science  of  appearances.  From  want 
of  science  Mr.  J.  Lewis,  careful  painter  as  he  is, 
casts  the  shadow  of  a  lattice -window  in  sharply- 
defined  lines  upon  an  opposite  wall ;  which  he  would 
not  have  done,  had  he  been  familiar  with  the  phe- 
nomena of  penumbrse.  From  want  of  science,  Mr. 
Rosetti,  catching  sight  of  a  peculiar  iridescence  dis- 
played by  certain  hairy  surfaces  under  particular 
lights  (an  iridescence  caused  by  the  diffraction  of 
?ight  in  passing  the  hairs),  commits  the  error  of 
showing  this  iridescence  on  surfaces  and  in  positions 
where  it  could  not  occur. 

To  say  that  music,  too,  has  need  of  scientific  aid 
<vill  seem  still  more  surprising.  Yet  it  is  demonstra- 
ble that  music  is  but  ?,n  idealization  of  the  natural 
anguage  of  emotion  ;  and  that  consequently,  music 
must  be  good  or  bad  according  as  it  conforms  to  the 
laws  of  this  natural  language.  The  various  inflec- 
tions of  voice  which  accompany  feelings  of  different 
kinds  and  intensity**  and  have  been  shown  to  be 


78  EDUCATION. 

the  germs  jut  of  which  music  is  developed.  It  has 
been  further  shown,  that  these  inflections  and  ca- 
dences are  not  accidental  or  arbitrary  ;  but  that  they 
are  determined  by  certain  general  principles  of  vital 
action ;  and  that  their  expressiveness  depends  on 
this.  Whence  it  follows  that  musical  phrases  and 
the  melodies  built  of  them,  can  be  effective  only 
when  they  are  in  harmony  with  these  general  princi- 
ples. It  is  difficult  here  properly  to  illustrate  this 
position.  But  perhaps  it  will  suffice  to  instance  the 
swarms  of  worthless  ballads  that  infest  drawing- 
rooms,  as  compositions  which  science  would  forbid. 
They  sin  against  science  by  setting  to  music  ideas 
that  are  not  emotional  enough  to  prompt  musical  ex- 
pression ;  and  they  also  sin  against  science  by  using 
musical  phrases  that  have  no  natural  relation  to  the 
ideas  expressed:  even  where  tnese  are  emotional. 
They  are  bad  because  they  are  untrue.  And  to  say 
they  are  untrue,  is  to  say  they  are  unscientific. 

Even  in  poetry  the  same  thing  holds.  Like  music, 
poetry  has  its  root  in  those  natural  modes  of  expres- 
sion which  accompany  deep  feeling.  Its  rhythm,  its 
strong  and  numerous  metaphors,  its  hyperboles,  its 
violent  inversions,  are  simply  exaggerations  of  the 
traits  of  excited  speech.  To  be  good,  therefore, 
poetry  must  pay  respect  to  those  laws  of  nervous  ao- 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  18  OF  MOST  WORTHt          73 

tion  which  excited  speech  obeys.  In  intensifying 
and  combining  the  traits  of  excited  speech,  it  must 
have  due  regard  to  proportion — must  not  use  its  ap- 
pliances without  restriction ;  but,  where  the  ideas 
are  least  emotional,  must  use  the  forms  of  poetical 
expression  sparingly  ;  must  use  them  more  freely  as 
the  emotion  rises ;  and  must  carry  them  all  to  their 
greatest  extent  only  where  the  emotion  reaches  a 
climax.  The  entire  contravention  of  these  princi- 
ples results  in  bombast  or  doggerel.  The  insufficent 
respect  for  them  is  seen  in  didactic  poetry.  And  it 
is  because  they  are  rarely  fully  obeyed,  that  we  have 
so  much  poetry  that  is  inartistic. 

Not  only  is  it  that  the  artist,  of  whatever  kind, 
cannot  produce  a  truthful  work  without  he  under- 
stands the  laws  of  the  phenomena  he  represents ;  but 
it  is  that  he  must  also  understand  how  the  minds  of 
spectators  or  listeners  will  be  affected  by  the  several 
peculiarities  of  his  work — a  question  in  psychology. 
What  impression  any  given  art-product  generates,! 
manifestly  depends  upon  the  mental  natures  of  those 
to  whom  it  is  presented ;  and  as  all  mental  natures 
have  certain  general  principles  in  common,  there 
must  result  certain  corresponding  general  principles 
on  which  alone  art-products  can  be  successfully 
framed.  These  general  p*HM)>Dle&  cannot  be  fully 


T4  EDUCATION. 

understood  and  applied,  unless  the  artist  sees  how 
they  follow  from  the  laws  of  mind.  To  ask  whether 
the  composition  of  a  picture  is  good,  is  really  to  ask 
how  the  perceptions  and  feelings  of  observers  will  be 
affected  by  it.  To  ask  whether  a  drama  is  well  con- 
structed, is  to  ask  whether  its  situations  are  so  ar- 
ranged as  duly  to  consult  the  power  of  attention  of 
an  audience,  and  duly  to  avoid  over-taxing  any  one 
class  of  feelings.  Equally  in  arranging  the  leading 
divisions  of  a  poem  or  fiction,  and  hi  combining  the 
words  of  a  single  sentence,  the  goodness  of  the  effect 
depends  upon  the  skill  with  which  the  mental  ener- 
gies and  susceptibilities  of  the  reader  are  economized. 
Every  artist,  in  the  course  of  his  education  and 
after-life,  accumulates  a  stock  of  maxims  by  which 
his  practice  is  regulated.  Trace  such  maxims  to 
their  roots,  and  you  find  they  inevitably  lead  you 
iown  to  psychological  principles.  And  only  when 
the  artist  ra  -'onally  understands  these  psychological 
principles  and  their  various  corollaries,  can  he  work 
in  harmony  with  them. 

We  do  not  for  a  moment  believe  that  science  willl 
make  an  artist.  While  we  contend  that  th;3  leading 
laws  both  of  objective  and  subjective  phenomena 
must  be  understood  by  him,  we  by  no  means  contend 
that  knowledge  of  *uch  laws  will  serve  in  place  of 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  18  OF  MOST  WORTH f          75 

natural  perception.  Not  only  the  poet,  but  also  the 
artist  of  every  type,  is  born,  not  made.  What  we 
issert  is,  that  innate  faculty  alone  will  not  suffice ; 
but  must  have  the  aid  of  organized  knowledge.  In- 
tuition will  do  much,  but  it  will  not  do  all.  Only 
when  Genius  is  married  to  Science  can  the  highest 
results  be  produced. 

As  we  have  above  asserted,  Science  is  necessary 
not  only  for  the  most  successful  production,  but  also 
for  the  full  appreciation  of  the  fine  arts.  In  what 
consists  the  greater  ability  of  a  man  than  of  a  child 
to  perceive  the  beauties  of  a  picture ;  unless  it  is  in 
his  more  extended  knowledge  of  those  truths  in  na- 
ture or  life  which  the  picture  renders  ?  How  hap- 
pens the  cultivated  gentleman  to  enjoy  a  fine  poem 
so  much  moi<3  than  a  boor  does ;  if  it  is  not  because 
his  wider  acquaintance  with  objects  and  actions  ena- 
ble? him  to  see  in  the  poem  much  that  the  boor  can- 
not see  ?  And  if,  as  is  here  so  obvious,  there  must 
be  some  familiarity  with  the  things  represented,  be- 
?ore  the  representation  can  be  appreciated  ;  then  the 
representation  can  be  completely  appreciated,  only 
in  proportion  as  the  things  represented  are  completely 
understood.  The  fact  is,  that  every  additional  truth 
which  a  work  of  art  expresses,  gives  an  additional 
pleasure  to  the  percinient  Ittiftd—  9  oleasure  that  is 


78  EDUCATION. 

missed  by  those  ignorant  of  this  truth.  The  more 
realities  an  artist  indicates  in  any  given  amount  of 
work,  the  more  faculties  does  he  appeal  to  ;  the  more 
numerous  associated  ideas  does  he  suggest ;  the  more 
gratification  does  he  afford.  But  to  receive  this  grat- 
ification the  spectator,  listener,  or  reader,  must  know 
the  realities  which  the  artist  has  indicated ;  and  to 
know  these  realities  is  to  know  so  much  science. 

And  now  let  us  not  overlook  the  further  great  fact, 
that  not  only  does  science  underlie  sculpture,  paint- 
ing, music,  poetry,  but  that  science  is  itself  poetic 
The  current  opinion  that  science  and  poetry  are  op- 
posed is  a  delusion.  It  is  doubtless  true  that  as 
states  of  consciousness,  cognition  and  emotion 
tend  to  exclude  each  other.  And  it  is  doubtless  also 
true  that  an  extreme  activity  of  the  reflective  powers 
tends  to  deaden  the  feelings ;  while  an  extreme  actir- 
ity  of  the  feelings  tends  to  deaden  the  reflective  pow- 
ers; in  which  sense,  indeed,  all  orders  of  activity  are 
antagonistic  to  each  other.  But  it  is  not  true  that 
the  facts  of  science  are  unpoetical  :  or  that  the 
cultivation  of  science  is  necessarily  unfriendly  to  the 
exercise  of  imagination  or  the  love  of  the  beauti- 
ful. On  the  contrary  science  opens  up  realms  of 
poetry  where  to  the  unscientific  all  is  a  blank. 
Those  engaged  in  scientific  xeeearches  constantly 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  IS  OF  MOST  WORTH*          71 

show  us  that  they  realize  not  less  vividly,  but  more 
vividly,  than  others,  the  poetry  of  theii  subjects. 
Whoever  will  dip  into  Hugh  Miller's  works  on  ge« 
ology,  or  read  Mr.  Lewes's  "Seaside  Studies,"  will 
perceive  that  science  excites  poetry  rather  than  ex- 
tinguishes it.  And  whoever  will  contemplate  the 
life  of  uroethe  will  see  that  the  poet  and  the  man  of 
science  can  co-exist  in  equal  activity.  Is  it  not,  in- 
deed, an  absurd  and  almost  a  sacrilegious  belief  that 
the  more  a  man  studies  Nature  the  less  he  reveres  it? 
Think  you  that  a  drop  of  water,  which  to  the  vulgar 
eye  is  but  a  drop  of  water,  loses  anything  in  the  eye 
of  the  physicist  who  knows  that  its  elements  are  held 
together  by  a  force  which,  if  suddenly  liberated, 
would  produce  a  flash  of  lightening  ?  Think  you 
that  what  is  carelessly  looked  upon  by  the  uninitiated 
are  a  mere  snow-flake,  does  not  suggest  higher  asso- 
ciations to  one  who  has  seen  through  a  microscope 
the  wondrously  varied  and  elegant  forms  of  snow* 
crystals  ?  Think  you  that  the  rounded  rock  marked 
with  parallel  scratches  calls  up  as  much  poetry  in  an 
ignorant  mind  as  in  the  mind  of  a  geologist,  who 
knows  that  over  this  rock  a  glacier  slid  a  million 
years  ago  ?  The  truth  is,  that  those  who  have  never 
entered  upon  scientific  pursuits  know  not  a  tithe  of 
the  poetry  by  which  they  areturrounded.  Whoever 


78  EDUCATION. 

has  not  in  youth  collected  plants  and  insects,  knows 
not  half  the  halo  of  interest  which  lanes  and  hedge- 
rows can  assume.  Whoever  has  not  sought  for  fos- 
sils, has  little  idea  of  the  poetical  associations  that 
surround  the  places  where  imbedded  treasures  were 
found.  Whoever  at  the  seaside  has  not  had  a  micro- 
scope and  aquarium,  hab  yet  to  learn  what  the  high* 
est  pleasures  of  the  seaside  are.  Sad,  indeed,  is  it  to 
see  how  men  occupy  themselves  with  trivialities,  and 
are  indifferent  to  the  grandest  phenomena — care  not 
to  understand  the  architecture  of  the  Heavens,  but 
are  deeply  interested  in  some  contemptible  contro- 
versy about  the  intrigues  of  Mary  Queen  of  Scots  ! 
— are  learnedly  critical  over  a  Greek  ode,  and  pass 
by  without  a  glance  that  grand  epic  written  by  the 
finger  of  God  upon  the  strata  of  the  Earth  ! 

We  find,  then,  that  even  for  this  remaining  di- 
vision of  human  activities,  scientific  culture  is  the 
proper  preparation.  We  find  that  assthetics  in  gen- 
eral are  necessarily  based  upon  scientific  principles ; 
and  can  be  pursued  with  complete  success  only 
through  an  acquaintance  with  these  principles.  We 
find  that  for  the  criticism  and  due  appreciation  of 
works  of  art,  a  knowledge  of  the  constitution  of 
things,  or  in  other  words,  a  knowledge  of  science,  in 
requisite.  And  we  not  only  find  that  science  is  the 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  IS  OF  MOST  WORTH f       7» 

nandmaid  to  all  forms  of  art  and  poetry,  but  that, 
rightly  regarded,  science  is  itself  poetical. 

Thus  far  our  question  has  been,  the  worth  of  knowl- 
edge of  this  or  that  kind  for  purposes  of  guidance. 
"We  have  now  to  judge  the  relative  values  of  differ 
ent  kinds  of  knowledge  for  purposes  of  discipline 
This  division  of  our  subject  we  are  obliged  to  treat 
with  comparative  brevity;  and  happily,  no  very 
lengthened  treatment  of  it  is  needed.  Having  found 
what  is  best  for  the  one  end,  we  have  by  implication 
found  what  is  best  for  the  other.  We  may  be  quite 
sure  that  the  acquirement  of  those  classes  of  facts 
which  are  most  useful  for  regulating  conduct,  in- 
volves a  mental  exercise  best  fitted  for  strengthen- 
ing the  faculties.  It  would  be  utterly  contrary  to  the 
beautiful  economy  of  Nature,  if  one  kind  of  culture 
were  needed  for  the  gaining  of  information  and 
another  kind  were  needed  as  a  mental  gymnastic. 
Everywhere  throughout  creation  we  find  faculties 
developed  through  the  performance  of  those  func- 
tions which  it  is  their  office  to  perform;  not 
through  the  performance  of  artificial  exercises  de- 
vised to  fit  them  for  these  functions.  The  Red  In 
dian  acquires  the  swiftness  and  agility  which  makes 
him  a  successful  hunter,  by  the  actual  pursuit  of  ani 
mals ;  and  by  the  miscellaneous  activities  of  his  life. 


80  EDUCATION. 

he  gams  a  better  balance  of  physical  powers  tha* 
gymnastics  ever  give.  That  skill  in  tracking  ene 
mies  and  prey  which  he  has  reached  by  long  prac- 
tice, implies  a  subtlety  of  perception  far  exceeding  aiiy- 
thing  produced  by  artificial  training.  And  similarly 
throughout.  From  the  Bushman,  whose  eye,  which 
being  habitually  employed  in  identifying  distant  ob- 
jects that  are  to  be  pursued  or  fled  from,  has  acquired 
a  quite  telescopic  range,  to  the  accountant  whose  daily- 
practice  enables  him  to  add  up  several  columns  of 
figures  simultaneously,  we  find  that  the  highest  power 
of  a  faculty  results  from  the  discharge  of  those  dutiys 
which  the  conditions  of  life  require  it  to  discharge. 
And  we  may  be  certain,  a  priori,  that  the  same  law 
holds  throughout  education.  The  education  of  mo«t 
value  for  guidance,  must  at  the  same  time  be  the  ed- 
ucation of  most  value  for  discipline.  Let  us  considei 
the  evidence. 

One  advantage  claimed  for  that  devotion  to  lan- 
guage-learning which  forms  so  prominent  a  featuie 
in  the  ordinary  curriculum,  is,  that  the  memor}r  is 
thereby  strengthened.  And  it  is  apparently  as- 
sumed that  this  is  an  advantage  peculiar  to  the  stud/ 
of  words.  But  the  truth  is,  that  the  sciences  affoid 
far  wider  fields  for  the  exercise  of  memory.  It  is 
DO  slight  task  to  remember  all  the  facts  ascertained 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  IS  OF  MOST  WORTHf          81 

respecting  our  solar  system ;  much  more  to  remem- 
ber all  that  is  known  concerning  the  structure  of 
our  galaxy.  The  new  compounds  which  chemistry 
daily  accumulates,  are  so  numerous  that  few,  save 
professors,  know  the  names  of  them  all ;  and  to  rec- 
ollect the  atomic  <  institutions  and  affinities  of  all 
these  compounds,  is  scarcely  possible  without  mak- 
ing chemistry  the  o<  cupation  of  life.  In  the  enormous 
mass  of  phenomena  presented  by  the  Earth's  crust, 
and  in  the  still  more  enormous  mass  of  phenomena 
presented  by  the  fossils  it  contains,  there  is  matter 
which  it  takes  the  geological  student  years  of  appli- 
cation to  master.  In  each  leading  division  of  physics 
— sound,  heat,  light,  electricity-— the  facts  are  numer- 
ous enough  to  alarm  any  one  proposing  to  learn  them 
all.  And  when  we  pass  to  the  organic  sciences,  the 
effort  of  memory  required  becomes  still  greater.  In 
human  anatomy  alone,  the  quantity  of  detail  is  so 
great,  that  the  young  surgeon  has  commonly  to  get 
it  up  half-a-dozen  times  before  he  can  permanently 
retain  *t.  The  number  of  species  of  plants  which 
botanists  distinguish,  amounts  to  some  320,000 ; 
while  the  varied  forms  of  animal  life  with  which  the 
•oologist  deals,  are  estimated  at  some  two  millions. 
So  vasi-  :s  the  accumulation  of  facts  which  men  of 

science  have   before   them,   that  only   by  dividing 
ft 


88  EDUCATION. 

and  subdividing  their  labors  can  they  deal  with  it 
To  a  complete  knowledge  of  his  own  division,  each 
adds  but  a  general  knowledge  of  the  rest.  Surely, 
then,  science,  cultivated  even  to  a  very  moderate  ex- 
tent, affords  adequate  exercise  for  memory.  To  say 
the  very  least,  it  involves  quite  as  good  a  training 
for  this  faculty  as  language  does. 

But  now  mark  that  while  for  the  training  of  mere 
memory,  science  is  as  good  as,  if  not  better  than, 
language ;  it  has  an  immense  superiority  in  the  kind 
of  memory  it  cultivates.  In  the  acquirement  of  a 
language,  the  connections  of  ideas  to  be  established 
in  the  mind  correspond  to  facts  that  are  in  a  great 
measure  accidental;  whereas,  in  the  acquirement  of 
science,  the  connections  of  ideas  to  be  established 
in  the  mind  correspond  to  facts  that  are  mostly  nec- 
essary. It  is  true  that  the  relations  of  words  to  their 
meaning  is  in  one  sense  natural,  and  that  the  genesis 
of  these  relations  may  be  traced  back  a  certain  dis- 
tance ;  though  very  rarely  to  the  beginning ;  (to 
which  let  us  add  the  remark  that  the  laws  of  this  gen- 
esis form  a  branch  of  mental  science — the  science  of 
philology.)  But  since  it  will  not  be  contended  that 
in  the  acquisition  of  languages,  as  ordinarily  carried 
on,  these  natural  relations  between  words  and  their 
meanings  are  habituall^  traced,  and  the  laws  regu- 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  IS  OF  MOST  WORTH  ?       88 

lating  them  explained ;  it  must  be  admitted  that  they 
are  commonly  learned  as  fortuitous  relations.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  relations  which  science  presents 
are  causal  relations ;  and,  when  properly  taught,  are 
understood  as  such.  Instead  of  being  practically 
accidental,  they  are  necessary ;  and  as  such,  give  ex 
ercise  to  the  reasoning  faculties.  While  languagf 
familiarizes  with  non-rational  relations,  science  fa- 
miliarizes with  rational  relations.  While  the  one 
exercises  memory  only,  the  other  exercises  both 
memory  and  understanding. 

Observe  next  that  a  great  superiority  of  science 
over  language  as  a  means  of  discipline,  is,  that  it 
cultivates  the  judgment.  As,  in  a  lecture  on  mental 
education  delivered  at  theKoyal  Institution,  Profes- 
sor Faraday  well  remarks,  the  most  common  intel- 
lectual fault  is  deficiency  of  judgment.  He  contends 
that  "  society,  speaking  generally,  is  not  only  igno- 
rant as  respects  education  of  the  judgment,  but  it  is 
also  ignorant  of  its  ignorance."  And  the  cause  to 
which  he  ascribes  this  state  is  want  of  scientific  cul- 
ture. The  truth  of  his  conclusion  is  obvious.  Cor- 
rect judgment  with  regard  to  all  surrounding  things^ 
events,  and  consequences,  becomes  possible  only 
through  knowledge  of  the  way  in  which  surrounding 
phenomena  depend  on  each  other.  No  extent  of  ac- 


84  JDUCATIOA. 

quaintance  witn  che  meanings  of  words,  can  girt 
the  power  of  forming  correct  inferences  respecting 
causes  and  effects.  The  constant  drawing  of  con- 
clusions from  data,  and  then  of  verifying  those  con- 
clusions by  observation  and  experiment,  can  alone 
give  the  power  of  judging  correctly.  And  that  it 
necessitates  this  habit  is  one  of  the  immense  advant- 
ages of  science. 

Not  only,  however,  for  intellectual  discipline  is 
science  the  best ;  but  also  for  moral  discipline.  The 
learning  of  languages  tends,  if  anything,  further  to 
increase  the  already  undue  respect  for  authority. 
Such  and  such  are  the  meanings  of  these  words,  says 
the  teacher  or  the  dictionary.  So  and  so  is  the  rule 
in  this  case,  says  the  grammar.  By  the  pupil  these 
dicta  are  received  as  unquestionable.  His  constant 
attitude  of  mind  is  that  of  submission  to  dogmatic 
teaching.  And  a  necessary  result  is  a  tendency  to 
accept  without  inquiry  whatever  is  established. 
Quite  opposite  is  the  attitude  of  mind  generated  by 
the  cultivation  of  science.  By  science,  constant  ap- 
peal is  made  to  individual  reason.  Its  truths  are 
not  accepted  upon  authority  alone;  but  all  are  at 
liberty  to  test  them — nay,  in  many  cases,  the  pupil 
is  required  to  think  out  his  own  conclusions.  Every 
step  in  a  scientific  investigation  is  submitted  to  his 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  JS  OF  MOST  WORTHt  81 

judgment.  He  is  not  asked  to  admit  it  without  see* 
ing  it  to  be  true.  And  the  trust  in  his  own  powers 
thus  produced,  is  further  increased  by  the  constancy 
with  which  Nature  justifies  his  conclusions  when 
they  are  correctly  drawn.  From  all  which  there 
flows  thai  independence  which  is  a  most  valuable 
element  in  character.  Nor  is  this  the  only  moral 
benefit  bequeathed  by  scientific  culture.  When 
carried  on,  as  it  should  always  be,  as  much  as  possi« 
ble  under  the  form  of  independent  research,  it  exer- 
cises perseverance  and  sincerity.  As  says  Professor 
Tyndall  of  inductive  inquiry,  "  it  requires  patient 
industry,  and  an  humble  and  conscientious  accept- 
ance of  what  Nature  reveals.  The  first  condition  ot 
success  is  an  honest  receptivity  and  a  willingness  to 
abandon  all  preconceived  notions,  however  cherished, 
if  they  be  found  to  contradict  the  truth.  Believe 
me,  a  self-renunciation  which  has  something  noble 
in  it,  and  of  which  the  world  never  hears,  is  often 
enacted  in  the  private  experience  of  the  true  votary 
of  science." 

Lastly  we  have  to  assert — and  the  assertion  will, 
we  doubt  not,  cause  extreme  surprise — that  the  disci- 
pline of  science  issuperiorto  that  of  our  ordinary  edu- 
cation, because  of  the  religious  culture  that  it  gives. 
Of  course  we  do  not  here  _use  the  words  scientific 


36  EDUCATION. 

and  religious  in  their  ordinary  limited  acceptations 
(but  in  their  widest  and  highest  acceptations.  Doubt 
:  Jess,  to  the  superstitions  that  pass  under  the  name  o' 
leligion,  science  is  antagonistic ;  but  not  to  the  es 
sential  religion  which  these  superstitions  merely  hide. 
Doubtless,  too,  in  much  of  the  science  that  is  cur- 
rent, there  is  a  pervading  spirit  of  irreligion  ;  but  net 
in  that  true  science  which  has  passed  beyond  the 
superficial  into  the  profound. 

"  True  science  and  true  religion,"  says  Professor  Huxley  at  the 
close  of  a  recent  course  of  lectures,  "  are  twin-sisters,  and  the 
separation  of  either  from  the  other  is  sure  to  prove  the  death  of 
both.  Science  prospers  exactly  in  proportion  as  it  is  religious ; 
and  religion  flourishes  in  exact  proportion  to  the  scientific  depth 
and  firmness  of  its  basis.  The  great  deeds  of  philosophers  have 
been  less  the  fruit  of  their  intellect  than  of  the  direction  of  th:it 
intellect  by  an  eminently  religious  tone  of  mind.  Truth  has 
yielded  berself  rather  to  their  patience,  their  love,  their  single- 
heartedness,  and  their  self-denial,  than  to  their  logical  acumen." 

So  r'ar  from  science  being   irreligious,  as   manj 
think,  it  is  the  neglect  of  science  that  is  irreligious 
«— it  is  the  refusal  to  study  the  surrounding  creation 
that  is  irreligious.     Take  a  humble  simile.    Suppo. 
a  writer  were  daily  saluted  with  praises  couchei 
superlative    language.      Suppose   the   wisdom,   the 
grandeur,  the  beauty  of  his  works,  were  the  constant 
topics  of  the  eulogies  addressed  to  him.     Suppose 
those  who  unceasingly  uttered  these  eulogies  on  his 
works  were  content  with  ^coking  at  the  outsides  of 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  IS  OF  MOST  WORTH t          81 

them ;  and  had  never  opened  them,  much  less  tried 
to  understand  them.  What  value  should  we  put 
apon  their  praises r  What  should  we  think  of  their 
sincerity?  Yet  comparing  small  things  to  great, 
such  is  the  conduct  of  mankind  in  general,  hi  refer- 
ence to  the  Universe  and  its  Cause.  Nay,  it  is 
worse.  Not  only  do  they  pass  by  without  study, 
these  things  which  they  daily  proclaim  to  be  so  won- 
derful ;  but  very  frequently  they  condemn  as  mere 
triflers  those  who  give  time  to  the  observation  of 
Nature — they  actually  scorn  those  who  show  anv 
active  interest  in  these  marvels.  We  repeat,  then, 
that  not  science,  but  the  neglect  of  science,  is  irrelig- 
ious. Devotion  to  science  is  a  tacit  worship — a  tacit 
recognition  of  worth  in  the  things  studied ;  and  by 
implication  in  their  Cause.  It  is  not  a  mere  lip- 
homage,  but  a  homage  expressed  in  actions — not  a 
professed  respect,  but  a  respect  proved  by  the  sacrifice 
Of  time,  thought,  and  labor. 

Nor  is  it  thus  only  that  true  science  is  essentially 
religious.  It  is  religious,  too,  inasmuch  as  it  gener. 
ates  a  profound  respect  for,  and  an  implicit  faith  in, 
those  uniform  laws  which  underlie  all  things.  By 
accumulated  experiences  the  man  of  science  acquires 
a  thorough  belief  in  the  unchanging  relations  of 
phenomena — in  the  invariable  connection  of  cause 


88  EDUCATION. 

and  consequence — in  the  necessity  of  good  or  evil  re- 
sults. Instead  of  the  rewards  and  punishments  of, 
;raditional  belief,  which  men  vaguely  hope  they  may 
gain,  or  escape,  spite  of  their  disobedience  ;  he  finds 
that  there  are  rewards  and  punishments  in  the  or- 
dained constitution  of  things,  and  that  the  evil  re- 
sults of  disobedience  are  inevitable.  He  sees  that 
the  laws  to  which  we  must  submit  are  not  only  in. 
exorable  but  beneficent.  He  sees  that  in  virtue  of 
these  laws,  the  process  of  things  is  ever  toward  a 
greater  perfection  and  a  higher  happiness.  Hence 
he  is  led  constantly  to  insist  on  these  laws,  and  is 
indignant  when  men  disregard  them.  And  thus 
does  he,  by  asserting  the  eternal  principles  of  things 
and  the  necessity  of  conforming  to  them,  prove  him- 
self  intrinsically  religious. 

To  all  which  add  the  further  religious  aspect  o| 
science,  that  it  alone  can  give  us  true  conceptions  ot 
ourselves  and  our  relation  to  the  mysteries  of  exist, 
ence.  At  the  same  time  that  it  shows  us  all  whicli 
can  be  known,  it  shows  us  the  limits  beyond  which 
We  can  know  nothing.  Not  by  dogmatic  assertion 
does  it  teach  the  impossibility  of  comprehending 
the  ultimate  cause  of  things ;  but  it  leads  us  clearly 
to  recognize  this  impossibility  by  bringing  us  in  every 
direction  to  boundaries  we  oaanot  cross.  It  realize! 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  IS  OF  MOST  WORTH?       89 

to  us  in  a  way  which  nothing  else  can,  the  littleness 
of  human  intelligence  in  the  face  of  that  which  tran- 
scends human  intelligence.  While  toward  the  tra- 
ditions and  authorities  of  men  its  attitude  may  be 
proud,  before  the  impenetrable  veil  which  hides  the 
Absolute  its  attitude  is  humble — a  true  pride  and  a 
true  humility.  Only  the  sincere  man  of  science  (and 
by  this  title  we  do  not  mean  the  mere  calculator  of 
distances,  or  analyzer  of  compounds,  or  labeller  of 
species;  but  him  who  through  lower  truths  seeks 
higher,  and  eventually  the  highest)  only  the  genuine 
man  of  science,  we  say,  can  truly  know  how  utterly 
beyond,  not  only  human  knowledge,  but  human 
conception,  is  the  Universal  Power  of  which  Nature, 
and  Life,  and  Thought  are  manifestations. 

We  conclude,  then,  that  for  discipline,  as  well  as 
for  guidance,  science  is  of  chiefest  value.  In  all  its 
effects,  learning  the  meanings  of  things,  is  better 
than  learning  the  meanings  of  words.  Whether  for 
intellectual,  moral,  or  religious  training,  the  study 
of  surrounding  phenomena  is  immensely  superior  to 
the  study  of  grammars  and  lexicons. 

Thus  to  the  question  with  which  we  set  out — 
What  knowledge  is  of  most  worth? — the  uniform 
reply  is — Science.  Thj*  is  the  verdict  on  all  the 


90 

5oui:ts.  For  Direct  self-^rese  vation,  or  the  raai» 
tenancp  ->f  life  and  health,  the  all-important  knowl- 
edge is — Science.  For  that  indirect  self-preservation 
which  we  call  gaining  a  livelihood,  the  knowledge  of 
greatest  value  is — Science.  For  the  due  discharge 
of  parental  functions,  the  proper  guidance  is  to  be 
found  only  in — Science.  For  that  interpretation 
national  life,  past  and  present,  without  which  the 
citizen  ,annot  rightly  regulate  his  conduct,  the 
indispensable  key  is — Science.  Alike  for  the  most 
jerfect  production  and  highest  enjoyment  of  art  in 
ill  its  forms,  the  needful  preparation  is  still — Sci- 
ence And  for  purposes  of  discipline — intellectual, 
moral,  religious — the  most  efficient  study  is,  once 
more — Science.  The  Question  which  at  first  seeniecj 
so  perplexed,  has  become,  in  the  course  of  oui 
inquiry,  jomparatively  simple.  We  have  not  to 
estimate  the  degrees  of  importance  of  different  orders 
of  human  activity,  and  different  sjudies  as  severally 
fitting  us  for  them  ;  since  we  find  that  the  study  of 
Science,  in  its  most  comprehensive  meaning,  is  the 
best  preparation  for  all  these  orders  of  activity.  We 
have  not  to  decide  between  the  claims  of  knowledgo 
of  great  though  conventional  value,  and  knowledge 
of  Jess  though  intrinsic  value .  seeing  that  the 
knowledge  which  we  find  to  be  of  most  value  in  al* 


WHAT  KNOWLEDGE  JS  OF  MOST  WORTH f          91 

other  respects,  is  intrinsically  most  valuable :  its 
worth  is  not  dependent  upon  opinion,  but  is  as  fixed 
as  is  the  relation  of  man  to  the  surrounding  world. 
Necessary  and  eternal  as  are  its  truths,  all  Science 
concerns  all  mankind  for  all  time.  Equally  at 
present,  and  in  the  remotest  future,  must  it  be  of  in- 
calculable importance  for  the  regulation  of  their  con 
duct,  that  men  should  understand  the  science  of  life, 
physical,  mental,  and  social ;  and  that  they  should 
understand  all  other  science  as  a  key  to  the  science 
oi  life. 

And  yet  the  knowledge  which  is  of  such  trans- 
cendent value  is  that  which,  in  our  age  of  boasted 
education,  receives  the  least  attention.  While  this 
which  we  call  civilization  could  never  have  arisen 
had  it  not  been  for  science  ;  science  forms  scarcely 
an  appreciable  element  in  what  men  consider  civilized 
training.  Though  to  the  progress  of  science  we  owe 
it,  that  millions  find  support  where  once  there  was 
food  only  for  thousands  ;  yet  of  these  millions  but  a 
few  thousands  pay  any  respect  to  that  which  has 
made  their  existence  possible.  Though  this  increas- 
ing knowledge  of  the  properties  and  relations  of 
tnings  has  not  only  enabled  wandering  tribes  to 
grew  into  populous  nations,  but  has  given  to  the 
countless  members  of  tho?"  Dopulous  nations  com- 


«  EDUCATION. 

forts  and  pleasures  which  their  few  naked  ancestor! 
never  even  conceived,  or  could  have  believed,  yet  is 
this  kind  of  knowledge  only  now  receiving  a  grudg- 
ing recognition  in  our  highest  educational  institu- 
tions. To  the  slowly  growing  acquaintance  with  the 
uniform  co-existences  and  sequences  of  phenom- 
ena— to  the  establishment  of  invariable  laws,  we 
owe  our  emancipation  from  the  grossest  superstitions. 
But  for  science  we  should  be  still  worshipping 
fetishes  ;  or,  with  hecatombs  of  victims,  propitiating 
diabolical  deities.  And  yet  this  science,  which,  in 
place  of  the  most  degrading  conceptions  of  things,  has 
given  us  some  insight  into  the  grandeurs  of  creation, 
is  written  against  in  our  theologies  and  frowned  upon 
from  our  pulpits. 

Paraphrasing  an  Eastern  fable,  we  may  say  that  in 
the  family  of  knowledges,  Science  is  the  household 
drudge,  who,  in  obscurity,  hides  unrecognized  per- 
fections. To  her  has  been  committed  all  the  workj 
by  her  skill,  intelligence  and  devotion,  have  all  the 
conveniences  and  gratifications  been  obtained  ;  and 
while  ceaselessly  occupied  ministering  to  the  rest, 
she  has  been  kept  in  the  background,  that  her 
haughty  sisters  might  flaunt  their  fripperies  in  the 
eyes  of  the  world.  The  parallel  holds  yet  further. 
For  we  are  fast  coming  to  the  denouement*  when  the 


WHAT  KNOWIAVGE  28  OF  MOaT  WORTH?  «* 

positions  will  be  changed  ;  and  while  these  haughty 
sisters  sink  into  merited  neglect,  Science,  proclaimed 
as  highest  alike  in  worth  and  beauty,  will  reign 
supreme. 


EDUCATION. 


CHAPTER  H. 

INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION. 

THERE  cannot  fail  to  be  a  relationship  between 
,the  successive  systems  of  education,  and  the  success- 
ive social  states  with  which  they  have  co-existed. 
Having  a  common  origin  in  the  national  mind,  the 
institutions  of  each  epoch,  whatever  be  their  special 
functions,  must  have  a  family  likeness.  When  men 
received  their  creed  and  its  interpretations  from  an 
infallible  authority  deigning  no  explanations,  it  was 
natural  that  the  teaching  of  children  should  be 
purely  dogmatic.  While  "  believe  and  ask  no  ques- 
tions "  was  the  maxim  of  the  Church,  it  was  fitly 
the  maxim  of  the  school.  Conversely,  now  that 
Protestantism  has  gained  for  adults  a  right  of  priv- 
ate judgment  and  established  the  practice  of  appeal- 
ing to  reason,  there  is  harmony  in  the  change  that 
has  made  juvenile  instruction  a  process  of  exposition 
addressed  to  the  understanding.  Along  with  politi- 
cal despotism,  stern  in  its  commands,  ruling  by  force 
of  terror,  visiting  trifling  crimes  with  death,  and  im- 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  *6 

placable  in  its  vengeance  on  the  disloyal,  there  nec- 
essarily grew  up  an  academic  discipline  similarly 
harsh— a  discipline  of  multiplied  injunctions  and 
blows  for  every  breach  of  them — a  discipline  of  un- 
limited autocracy  upheld  by  rods,  and  ferules,  and 
the  black-hole.  On  the  other  hand,  the  increase  of 
political  liberty,  the  abolition  of  law  restricting  in* 
dividual  action,  and  the  amelioration  of  the  criminal 
code,  have  been  accompanied  by  a  kindred  progress 
toward  non-coercive  education :  the  pupil  is  ham- 
pered by  fewer  restraints,  and  other  means  than  pun- 
ishments are  used  to  govern  him.  In  those  ascetic 
days  when  men,  acting  on  the  greatest  misery  prin- 
ciple, held  that  the  more  gratifications  they  denied 
themselves  the  more  virtuous  they  were,  they,  as  a 
matter  of  course,  considered  that  the  best  education 
which  most  thwarted  the  wishes  of  their  children, 
and  cut  short  all  spontaneous  activity  with — "  You 
mustn't  do  so."  While  on  the  contrary,  now  that 
happiness  is  coming  to  be  regarded  as  a  legitimate 
aim — now  that  hours  of  T.p,bor  are' being  shortened 
and  popular  recreations  provided,  parents  and  teach- 
ers are  beginning  to  see  that  most  childish  desires 
ma  v  rightly  be  gratified,  that  childish  sports  should 
be  encouraged,  and  that  the  tendencies  of  the  grow- 
ing mind  are  not  altogether  so  diabolical  as  was  sup 


96  EDUCATION. 

posed.  The  age  in  which  all  thought  that  traded 
must  be  established  by  bounties  and  prohibitions  ; 
that  manufacturers  needed  their  materials  and  quali- 
ties and  prices  to  be  prescribed ;  and  that  the  value 
of  money  could  be  determined  by  law ;  was  an  age 
which  unavoidably  cherished  the  notions  that  a 
child's  mind  could  be  made  to  order ;  that  its  powew 
were  to  l*e  imparted  by  the  schoolmaster ;  that  it 
was  a  receptacle  into  which  knowledge  was  to  be  put 
and  there  built  up  after  its  teacher's  ideal.  In  this 
free -trade  era,  however,  when  we  are  learning  that 
there  is  much  more  self-regulation  in  things  than 
was  supposed ;  that  labor,  and  commerce,  and  agri- 
culture, and  navigation  can  do  better  without  man- 
agement than  with  it ;  that  political  governments,  to 
be  efficient,  must  grow  up  from  within  and  not  be 
imposed  from  without ;  we  are  also  beginning  to  see 
that  there  is  a  natural  process  of  mental  evolution 
which  is  not  to  be  disturbed  without  injury ;  that  we 
may  not  force  on  the  unfolding  mind  our  artificial 
forms ;  out  that  Psychology,  also,  discloses  to  us  a 
law  of  supply  and  demand,  to  which,  if  we  won1 1 
not  do  harm,  we  must  conform.  Thus  alike  in  iu: 
oracular  dogmatism,  in  its  harsh  discipline,  in  its 
multiplied  restrictions,  in  its  professed  asceticism^ 
and  in  its  faith  in  the  devices  of  men,  the  old  educar 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  97 

Conal  regime  was  akin  to  the  social  systems  with 
which  it  was  contemporaneous ;  and  similarly,  in  the 
reverse  of  these  characteristics  our  modern  modes  ol 
culture  correspond  to  our  more  liberal  religious  and 
political  institutions. 

But  there  remains  further  parallelisms  to  which 
we  have  not  yet  adverted:  that,  namely,  between 
the  processes  by  which  these  respective  changes  have 
been  wrought  out;  and  that  between  the  several 
states  of  heterogeneous  opinion  to  which  they  have 
led.  Some  centuries  ago  there  was  uniformity  of  be- 
Uet — religious,  political,  and  educational.  All  mep 
were  Romanists,  all  were  Monarchists,  all  were  dis- 
ciples of  Aristotle,  and  no  one  thought  of  calling 
in  question  that  grammar-school  routine  under 
which  all  were  brought  up.  The  same  agency 
has  in  each  case  replaced  this  uniformity  by  a 
constantly  increasing  diversity.  That  tendency 
toward  assertion  of  the  individuality  which,  after 
contributing  to  produce  the  great  Protestant 
movement,  has  since  gone  on  to  produce  an 
ever-increasing  number  of  sects — that  tendency 
which  initiated  political  parties,  and  out  of  the  two 
primary  ones  has,  in  these  modern  days,  evolved  a 
multiplicity  to  which  every  year  adds — that  tendency 
Which  led  to  the  Baconian  rebellion  against  the 


9*  EDUCATION. 

schools,  and  has  since  originated  here  and  a u road 
sundry  new  systems  of  thought— is  a  tendency 
which,  in  education  also,  has  caused  division  and  the 
accumulation  of  methods.  As  external  consequences 
of  the  same  internal  change,  these  processes  have 
necessarily  been  more  or  less  simultaneous.  Ihe  tie 
cline  of  authority  >  whether  papal,  philosophic,  kingly, 
or  tutorial,  is  essentially  one  phenomenon ;  in  each 
of  its  aspects  a  leaning  toward  free  action  is  seen 
alike  in  the  working  out  of  the  change  itself,  and  in 
the  new  forms  of  theory  and  practice  to  which  the 
change  has  given  birth. 

While  many  will  regret  this  multiplication  of 
schemes  of  juvenile  culture,  the  catholic  observer 
will  discern  in  it  a  means  of  ensuring  the  final  estab- 
lishment of  a  rational  system.  Whatever  may  be 
thought  of  theological  dissent,  it  is  clear  that  dis- 
sent in  education  results  in  facilitating  inquiry  by  the 
division  in  labor.  Were  we  in  possession  of  the  true 
method,  divergence  from  it  would,  of  coi^se,  be  prej- 
udicial; but  the  true  method  havin-.  t<.  be  found, 
the  efforts  of  numerous  independent  seekers  carry- 
ing out  their  researches  in  different  directions,  con- 
stitute a  better  agency  for  finding  it  than  any  that 
could  be  devisert.  Each  of  them  struck  by  some  new 
thought  which  probably  contains  more  or  less  of 


INTELLECTUAL  ttDUCATIOK.  90 

basis  in  facts — each  of  them  zealous  on  behalt  or  his 
plan,  fertile  in  expedients  to  test  its  correctness,  and 
untiring  in  his  efforts  to  make  known  its  success- 
each  of  them  merciless  in  his  criticism  on  the  rest- 
there  cannot  fail,  by  composition  of  forces,  to  be  a 
gradual  approximation  of  all  toward  the  right  course. 
Whatever  portion  of  the  normal  method  any  o*ie  at 
them  has  discovered,  must,  by  the  constant  exhibi- 
tion of  its  results,  force  itself  into  adoption ;  what- 
ever wrong  practices  he  has  joined  with  it  must,  bf 
repeated  experiment  and  failure,  be  exploded.  And 
by  this  aggregation  of  truths  and  elimination  of 
errors,  there  must  eventually  be  developed  a  correct 
and  complete  body  of  doctrine.  Of  the  three  phases 
through  which  human  opinion  passes — the  unanim- 
ity of  the  ignorant,  the  disagreement  of  the  inquir- 
ing, and  the  unanimity  of  the  wise — it  is  manifest 
that  the  second  is  the  parent  of  the  third.  They  are 
not  sequences  in  time  only ;  they  are  sequences  in 
causation.  However  impatiently,  therefore,  we  may 
witness  the  present  conflict  of  educational  systems, 
and  however  much  we  may  regret  its  accompanying 
evils,  we  must  recognize  it  as  a  transition  stage  need- 
ful to  be  passed  through,  and  beneficent  in  its  ulti- 
mate effects. 

Mean  while  may  we  not  advantageously  take  atoofe 


100  EDVCA-MOK. 

of  our  progress?  After  fifty  years  of  discussions 
experiment,  and  comparison  of  results,  may  we  not 
expect  a  few  steps  toward  the  goal  to  be  already 
made  good?  Some  old  methods  must  by  this  time 
have  fallen  out  of  use ;  some  new  ones  must  have 
become  established;  and  many  others  must  be  in 
process  of  general  abandonment  or  adoption.  Prob 
ably  we  may  see  in  these  various  changes,  when  put 
side  by  side,  similar  characteristics — may  find  in 
them  a  common  tendency ;  and  so,  by  inference,  may 
get  a  clue  to  the  direction  in  which  experience  is 
leading  us,  and  gather  hints  how  we  may  achieve 
yet  further  improvements.  Let  us  then,  as  a  pre 
timinary  to  a  deeper  consideration  of  the  matter, 
glance  at  the  leading  contrasts  between  the  educa- 
tion of  the  past  and  of  the  present. 

The  suppression  of  every  error  is  commonly  fol- 
lowed by  a  temporary  ascendency  of  the  contrary 
one  i  and  it  so  happened,  that  after  the  ages  when 
physical  development  alone  was  aimed  at,  there  came 
an  age  when  culture  of  the  mind  was  the  sole  solici- 
tude— when  children  had  lesson-books  put  before 
them  at  between  two  and  three  years  old — when 
school-hours  were  protracted,  and  the  getting  jf 
knowledge  was  thought  the  one  thing  needful.  As, 
further,  it  usually  happens,  that  after  one  of  these 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION  KM 

reactions  the  next  advance  is  achieved  by  co-ordinat- 
ing the  antagonist  errors,  and  perceiving  that  they 
are  opposite  sides  of  one  truth ;  so  we  are  now  com- 
ing to  the  conviction  that  body  and  mind  must  both 
be  cared  for,  and  the  whole  being  unfolded.  The 
forcing  system  has  been  in  great  measure  given  up, 
and  precocity  is  discouraged.  People  are  beginning 
to  see  that  the  first  requisite  to  success  in  life,  is  to 
be  a  good  animal.  The  best  brain  is  found  of  little 
service,  if  there  be  not  enough  vital  energy  to  work 
it ;  and  hence  to  obtain  the  one  by  sacrificing  the 
source  of  the  other,  is  now  considered  a  folly — a 
folly  which  the  eventual  failure  of  juvenile  prodigies 
constantly  illustrates.  Thus  we  are  discovering  the 
wisdom  of  the  saying,  that  one  secret  in  education  is 
"  to  know  how  wisely  to  lose  time." 

The  once  universal  practice  of  learning  by  rote,  is 
daily  falling  more  into  discredit.  All  modern  au« 
thorities  condemn  the  old  mechanical  way  of  teach* 
ing  the  alphabet.  The  multiplication  table  is  now 
frequently  taught  experimentally.  In  the  acquire- 
ment of  languages,  the  grammar-school  plan  is  being 
superseded  by  plans  based  on  the  spontaneous  proc- 
ess followed  by  the  child  in  gaining  its  mother 
tongue.  Describing  the  methods  there  used,  the 
"Reports  on  the  Training  School  at  Battersea  "  say: 


108  EDUCATION. 

«--"  The  instruction  in  the  whole  preparatory  course 
Is  chiefly  oral,  and  is  illustrated  as  much  as  possible 
by  appeals  to  nature."  And  so  throughout.  The 
rote-system,  like  other  systems  of  its  age,  made  more 
of  the  forms  and  symbols  than  of  the  things  sym- 
bolized. To  repeat  the  words  correctly  was  every- 
thing ;  to  understand  their  meaning  nothing :  and 
thus  the  spirit  was  sacrificed  to  the  letter.  It  is  at 
length  perceived,  that  in  this  case  as  in  others,  such 
a  result  is  not  accidental  but  necessary — that  in  pro- 
portion as  there  is  attention  to  the  signs,  there  must 
be  inattention  to  the  things  signified ;  or  that,  as 
Montaigne  long  ago  said — Sqavoir  par  cceur  n'est  pas 
sqavoir. 

Along  with  rote-teaching,  is  declining  also  the 
i/early  allied  teaching  by  rules.  The  particulars 
first,  and  then  the  generalization,  is  the  new  method 
• — a  method,  as  the  Battersea  School  reports  remark, 
which,  though  "  the  reverse  of  the  method  usually 
followed  which  consists  in  giving  the  pupil  the  rule 
first,"  is  yet  proved  by  experience  to  be  the  right 
one.  Rule-teaching  is  now  condemned  as  imparting 
a  merely  empirical  knowledge — as  producing  an  ap- 
pearance of  understanding  without  the  reality.  To 
give  the  net  product  of  inquiry,  without  the  inquiry 
that  leads  to  it,  is  found  to  be  both  enervating  and 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  ,03 

inefficient.  General  truths  to  be  of  due  and  per 
manent  use,  must  be  earned.  u  Easy  come  easy  go, '; 
is  a  saying  as  applicable  to  knowledge  as  to  wealth. 
While  rules,  lying  isolated  in  the  mind — not  joined 
to  its  other  contents  as  outgrowths  from  them — are 
continually  forgotten,  the  principles  which  those 
rules  express  piecemeal,  become,  when  once  reached 
by  the  understanding,  enduring  possessions.  While 
the  rule-taught  youth  is  at  sea  when  beyond  his  rules, 
the  youth  instructed  in  principles  solves  a  new  case 
as  readily  as  an  old  one.  Between  a  mind  of  rules 
and  a  mind  of  principles,  there  exists  a  difference 
such  as  that  between  a  confused  heap  of  materials, 
and  the  same  materials  organized  into  a  complete 
whole,  with  all  its  parts  bound  together.  Of  which 
types  this  last  has  not  only  the  advantage  that  its 
constituent  parts  are  better  retained,  but  the  much 
greater  advantage,  that  it  forms  an  efficient  agent 
for  inquiry,  for  independent  thought,  for  discovery — 
3nds  for  which  the  first  is  useless.  JST or  let  it  be  sup- 
posed that  this  is  a  simile  only:  it  is  the  literal 
truth.  The  union  of  facts  into  generalizations  is 
the  organization  of  knowledge,  whether  considered 
as  an  objective  phenomenon,  or  a  subjective  one : 
and  the  mental  grasp  may  be  measured  by  the 
extent  to  which  this  organization  is  carried. 


104  EDUCATION. 

From  the  substitution  of  principles  for  rut©*,  ztna 
ihe  necessarily  co-ordinate  practice  of  leaving  ab- 
stractions untaught  until  the  mind  has  been  famil- 
iarized with  the  facts  from  which  they  are  abstracted, 
has  resulted  the  postponement  of  some  once  early 
studies  to  a  late  period.  This  is  exemplified  in  the 
abandonment  of  that  intensely  stupid  custom,  the 
teaching  of  grammar  to  children.  As  M.  Marcel 
says : — "  It  may  without  hesitat;~n  be  affirmed  that 
grammar  is  not  the  stepping-stoii^,,  but  the  finishing 
instrument."  As  Mr.  Wyse  argues : — "  Grrammal 
and  Syntax  are  a  collect^- «n  of  laws  tai"  mles, 
Rules  are  gathered  from  practice:  they  are  tfce  re 
sulis  of  induction  to  which  we  come  by  long  obser 
vation  and  comparison  of  fac  Tt  is,  in  fine,  thi 
science,  the  philosophy  of  language.  In  following 
the  process  of  nature,  neither  individuals  nor  nations 
ever  arrive  at  the  science  first.  A  language  w 
spoken,  and  poetry  written,  many  years  before  eithei 
a  grammar  or  prosody  is  even  thought  of.  Men  did 
not  wait  till  Aristotle  had  constructed  his  logic,  to 
reason.  In  short,  as  grammar  was  made  after  lan- 
guage, so  ought  it  to  be  taught  after  language :  an 
inference  which  all  who  recognize  the  relationship 
between  the  evolution  of  the  race  and  of  the  indfr 
vidual,  will  see  to  be  unavoidable, 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  105 

Of  new  practices  that  have  grown  up  during  the 
decline  of  these  old  ones,  the  most  important  is  the 
systematic  culture  of  the  powers  of  observation. 
After  long  ages  of  blindness  men  are  at  last  seeing 
that  the  spontaneous  activity  of  the  observing  facul- 
ties in  children  has  a  meaning  and  a  use.  What  was 
»noe  thought  mere  purposeless  action  or  play,  or 
mischief,  as  the  case  might  be,  Is  now  recognized  as 
the  process  of  acquiring  a  knowledge  on  which  all 
after-knowledge  is  based.  Hence  the  well-conceJved 
but  ill -conducted  system  of  object-lessons.  The  say* 
ing  of  Bacon,  that  physics  is  the  mother  of  sciences, 
Aias  come  to  have  a  meaning  in  education.  Without 
an  accurate  acquaintance  with  the  visible  and  tan» 
gib'e  properties  of  things,  our  conceptions  must  be 
erroneous,  our  inferences  fallacious,  and  our  oper- 
ations unsuccessful.  "  The  education  of  the  senses 
neglected,  all  after  education  partakes  of  a  drowsi- 
ness, a  haziness,  an  insufficiency  which  it  is  impos- 
sible to  cure."  Indeed,  if  we  consider  it,  we  shall 
Qud  that  exhaustive  observation  is  an  element  in  all 
great  success.  It  is  not  to  artists,  naturalists,  and 
men  of  science  only,  that  it  is  needful ;  it  is  not  only 
that  the  skilful  physician  depends  on  it  for  the  cor- 
rectness of  his  diagnosis,  and  that  to  the  good 
Vt  is  so  important  tha4-  ;ome  years  in  the 


106  ELUCATTON. 

workshop  are  prescribed  for  him ;  but  we  may  see 
that  the  philosopher  also  is  fundameritaly  o  who 
^serves  relationshios  of  things  which  others  had 
overlooked,  and  that  the  poet,  too,  is  one  who  sees 
the  fine  facts  in  nature  which  all  recognize  when 
pointed  out,  but  did  not  before  remark.  Nothing 
requires  more  to  be  insisted  on  than  that  vivid  and 
complete  impressions  are  all  essential.  No  sound 
fabric  of  wisdom  can  be  woven  out  of  raw  material. 
While  the  old  method  of  presenting  truths  in  the 
abstract  has  been  falling  out  of  use,  there  has  been 
a  corresponding  adoption  of  the  new  method  of  pre- 
senting them  in  the  concrete.  The  rudimentary 
facts  of  exact  science  are  now  being  learnt  by  direct 
intuition,  as  textures,  and  tastes,  and  colors  are 
learnt.  Employing  the  ball-frame  for  first  lessons  in 
arithmetic  exemplifies  this.  It  is  well  illustrated, 
too,  in  Professor  De  Morgan's  mode  of  explaining 
the  decimal  notation.  M.  Marcel,  rightly  repudiat 
fog  the  old  system  of  tables,  teaches  weights  and 
measures  by  referring  to  the  actual  yard  and  foot 
pound  and  ounce,  gallon  and  quart;  and  lets  the  dis 
co very  of  their  relationships  be  experimental.  Th< 
use  of  geographical  models  and  models  of  the  regu 
iar  bodies,  etc.,  as  introductory  to  geography  and 
geometry  respectively^  are  facts  of  the  same  clas*. 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION,  107 

Manifestly  a  common  trait  of  these  methods  is,  that 
they  carry  each  child's  mind  through  a  process  like 
that  which  the  mind  of  humanity  at  large  has  gone 
hrough.  The  ruths  ot  number,  of  form,  of  re- 
lationship in  position,  were  all  originally  drawn  from 
objects ;  and  *o  present  these  truths  to  the  child  in 
the  concrete  is  to  let  him  learn  them  as  the  race 
learnt  them.  By  and  by,  perhaps,  it  will  be  seen 
that  he  cannot  possibly  learn  them  in  any  other 
way ;  for  that  if  he  is  made  to  repeat  them  as  ab- 
stractions, the  abstractions  can  have  no  meaning  for 
him,  until  he  finds  that  they  are  simply  statements 
of  what  he  intuitively  discerns. 

But  of  all  the  changes  taking  place,  the  most  sig- 
nificant is  the  growing  desire  to  make  the  acquire- 
ment of  knowledge  pleasurable  rather  than  painful 
~a  desire  based  on  the  more  or  less  distinct  percep- 
tion that  at  each  age  the  intellectual  action  which  a 
child  likes  is  a  healthful  one  for  it ;  and  conversely. 
There  ?.s  a  spreading  opinion  that  the  rise  of  an 
appetite  for  any  kind  of  knowledge  implies  that  the 
unfolding  mind  has  become  fit  to  assimilate  it,  and 
needs  it  for  the  purposes  of  growth  ;  and  that  on  the 
other  hand,  the  disgust  felt  toward  any  kind  of 
knowledge  is  a  sign  either  that  it  is  prematurely 
seuted,  or  that  it  >s  presented  in  an 


106  EDUCATION. 

form.  Hence  the  efforts  to  make  early  educatiot 
amusing,  and  all  education  interesting.  Hence  the 
lectures  on  the  value  of  play.  Hence  the  defence 
of  nursery  rhymes,  and  fairy  tales.  Daily  we  more 
and  more  conform  our  pians  to  juvenile  opinion. 
Does  the  child  like  this  or  that  kind  of  teaching? 
does  he  take  to  it?  we  constantly  ask.  "  His  natural 
desire  of  vark  j  should  be  indulged,"  says  M.  Mar- 
cel; "and  the  gratification  of  his  curiosity  should 
be  combined  with  his  improvement."  "Lessons," 
he  again  remarks,  "should  cease  before  the  child 
evinces  symptoms  of  weariness."  And  so  with  later 
education.  Short  breaks  during  school  hours,  ex- 
cursions into  the  country,  amusing  lectures,  choral 
jongs — in  these  and  many  like  traits,  the  change 
may  be  discerned.  Asceticism  is  disappearing  out 
of  education  as  out  of  life  i  and  the  usual  test  of 
political  legislation — its  tendency  to  promote  hap. 
piness — is  beginning  to  be,  in  a  great  degree,  the 
iect  of  legislation  for  the  school  and  the  nursery. 

What  now  is  the  common  characteristic  of  these 
several  changes  ?  Is  it  not  an  increasing  conformity 
to  the  methods  of  nature  ?  The  relinquishment  of 
early  forcing  against  which  nature  ever  rebels,  and 
the  leaving  of  the  first  years  for  exercise  of  the 
limbs  and  senses,  snow  this.  The  superseding  of 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  109 

learned  lessons  by  lessons  orally  and  experiment' 
ally  given,  like  those  of  the  field  and  play-ground, 
shows  this.  The  disuse  of  rule-teaching,  and  the 
adoption  of  teaching  by  principles — that  is,  the  leav- 
ing of  generalization  until  there  are  particulars  to 
base  them  on — show  this.  The  system  of  object- 
lessons  shows  this.  The  teaching  of  the  rudiments 
of  science  in  the  concrete  instead  of  the  abstract, 
shows  this.  And  above  all,  this  teno^ey  is  shown 
in  the  variously  directed  efforts  to  presero  knowledge 
in  attractive  forms,  and  so  to  make  the  acquirement 
of  it  pleasurable.  For  as  it  is  the  order  of  nature 
in  all  creatures  that  the  gratification  accompanying 
the  fulfilment  of  needful  functions  serves  as  a  stimu 
lus  to  their  fulfilment — as  during  the  self-educatica 
of  the  young  child,  the  delight  taken  in  the  biting 
of  corals,  and  the  pulling  to  pieces  of  toys,  becomes 
the  prompter  to  actions  which  teach  it  the  properties 
of  matter ;  it  follows  that,  in  choosing  the  succession 
of  subjects  and  the  modes  of  instruction  which 
most  interest  the  pupil,  we  are  fulfilling  nature's  be- 
hests, and  adjusting  our  proceedings  to  the  laws  oi 
'?fe. 

Thus,  then,  we  are  on  the  highway  toward  the 
doctrine  long  ago  enunciated  by  Pestalozzi,  that 
alike  in  its  order  and  its  methods,  education  must 


110  EDUCATION. 

conform  to  the  natural  process  of  mental  evolution— 
that  there  is  a  certain  sequence  in  which  the  faculties 
spontaneously  develop,  and  a  certain  kind  of  knowl- 
edge which  each  requires  during  its  development ;  and 
that  it  is  for  us  to  ascertain  this  sequence,  and  sup- 
ply this  knowledge.  All  the  improvements  above 
alluded  to  are  partial  applications  of  this  general 
principle.  A  nebulous  perception  of  it  now  prevails 
among  teachers ;  and  it  is  daily  more  insisted  on  in 
educational  works.  "  The  method  of  nature  is  the 
archetype  of  all  methods,"  says  M.  Marcel.  "  The 
vital  principle  in  the  pursuit  is  to  enable  the  pupil 
rightly  to  instruct  himself,"  writes  Mr.  Wyse.  Tho 
more  science  familiarizes  us  with  the  constitution  of 
things  the  more  do  we  see  in  them  an  inherent  sell- 
sufficiugness.  A  higher  knowledge  tends  contin- 
ually to  limit  our  interference  with  the  processes  of 
life.  As  in  medicine  the  old  "  heroic  treatment "  has 
given  place  to  mild  treatment,  and  often  no  treat- 
ment save  a  normal  regimen — as  we  have  found  that 
it  is  not  needful  to  mould  the  bodies  of  babes  by 
bandaging  them  in  papoose  fashion  or  otherwise — as 
in  jails  it  is  being  discovered  that  no  cunningly  de- 
mised discipline  of  ours  is  so  efficient  in  producing 
reformation  as  the  natural  discipline,  the  making 
prisoners  maintain  themselves  by  productive  labor 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  Ill 

io  in  educatian  we  are  finding  that  success  is  to  be 
achieved  only  by  rendering  our  measures  subservient 
to  that  spontaneous  unfolding  which  all  minds  go 
through  in  their  progress  to  maturity. 

Of  course,  this  fundamental  principle  of  tuition, 
that  the  arrangement  of  matter  and  method  must 
correspond  with  the  order  of  evolution  and  mode  of 
activity  of  the  faculties — a  principle  so  obviously 
true,  that  once  stated  it  seems  almost  self-evident — 
has  never  been  wholly  disregarded.  Teachers  have 
unavoidably  made  their  school-courses  coincide  with 
it  in  some  degree,  for  the  simple  reason  that  educa- 
tion is  possible  only  on  that  condition.  Boys  were 
never  taught  the  rule-of-three  until  after  they  had 
learnt  addition.  They  were  not  set  to  write  exer- 
cises before  they  had  got  into  their  copy-books. 
Conic  sections  have  always  been  preceded  by  Euclid. 
But  the  error  of  the  old  methods  consists  in  this, 
that  they  do  not  recognize  in  detail  what  they  are 
obliged  to  recognize  in  the  general.  Yet  the  prin- 
ciple applies  throughout.  If  from  the  time  when  P 
child  is  able  to  conceive  two  things  as  related  in, 
position,  years  must  ^iapse  before  it  can  form  a  true 
concept  of  the  earth,  as  a  sphere  made  up  of  land  and 
sea,  covered  with  mountains,  forests,  rivers,  and  cities, 
revolving  on  its  axis,  and  sweeping  round  the  sun — if  it 


IIS  EDUCATION. 

gets  from  thb  one  concept  to  the  other  by  clegieee — rf 
the  intermediate  concepts  which  it  forms  are  consecu- 
tively Jarger  and  more  complicated:  is  it  not  manifest 
that  there  is  ageneral  succession  through  which  only  it 
can  pass;  that  each  larger  concept  is  made  by  the 
combination  of  smaller  ones,  and  presupposes  them  ; 
and  that  to  present  any  of  these  compound  concepts 
before  the  child  is  in  possession  of  its  constituenV 
ones,  is  only  less  absurd  than  to  present  the  final 
concept  of  the  series  before  the  initial  one  ?  In  the 
mastering  of  every  subject  some  course  of  increas- 
ingly complex  ideas  has  to  be  gone  through.  The 
evolution  of  the  corresponding  faculties  consists  in 
the  assimilation  of  these;  which  in  any  true  sense, 
is  impossible  without  they  are  put  into  the  mind  in 
the  normal  order.  And  when  this  order  is  iiot  fol 
lowed,  the  result  is,  that  they  are  received  with  apa 
thy  or  disgust;  and  that  unless  the  pupil  is  intelli- 
gent enough  to  eventually  fill  up  the  gaps  himself, 
they  lie  in  his  memory  as  dead  facts,  capable  of  bo 
ing  turned  to  little  or  no  use. 

"  Why  trouble  ourselves  about  any  curriculum  at 
all  ?  "  it  may  be  asked.  "  If  it  be  true  that  the  mind 
like  the  body  has  a  predetermined  course  of  evolu 
tion, — if  it  unfolds  spontaneously — if  its  successive 

desires  for  this  or  that  kind  of  information   arise 

• 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  113 

trhen  these  are  severally  required  for  its  nutrition, 
— if  there  thus  exists  in  itself  a  prompter  to  the 
right  species  of  activity  at  the  right  time  ;  why  in- 
terfere in  any  way  ?  Why  not  leave  children  wholly 
to  the  discipline  of  nature  ? — why  not  remain  quite 
passive  and  let  them  get  knowledge  as  they  best 
can  ? — why  not  be  consistent  throughout  ? "  This  is 
an  awkward  looking  question.  Plausibly  implying 
as  it  does,  that  a  system  of  complete  laissez-faire  is 
the  logical  outcome  of  the  doctrines  set  forth,  it 
seems  to  furnish  a  disproof  of  them  by  reductio  ad 
dbsurdum.  In  truth,  however,  they  do  not,  when 
rightly  understood,  commit  us  to  any  such  untenable 
position.  A  glance  at  the  physical  analogies  will 
clearly  show  this.  It  is  a  general  law  of  all  life  that 
the  more  complex  the  organism  to  be  produced,  the 
longer  the  period  during  which  it  is  dependent  on  a 
parent  organism  for  food  and  protection.  The  con- 
trast between  the  minute,  rapidly-formed,  and  self- 
moving  spore  of  a  conferva,  and  the  slowly  devel- 
oped seed  of  a  tree,  with  its  multiplied  envelopes 
and  large  stock  of  nutriment  laid  by  to  nourish  the 
germ  during  its  first  stages  of  growth,  illustrates  this 
law  in  its  application  to  the  vegetable  world.  Among 
animal  organisms  we  may  trace  it  in  a  series  of 
contrasts  from  the  monad  whose  spontaneously- 


114  EDUCATION. 

divided  halves  are  as  self-sufficing  the  moment  aftei 
their  separation  as  was  the  original  whole;  up  to 
man,  whose  offspring  not  only  passes  through  a  pro- 
racted  gestation,  and  subsequently  long  depends  on 
the  breast  for  sustenance ;  but  after  that  must  have 
its  food  artificially  administered  ;  must,  after  it  has 
learned  to  feed  itself,  continue  to  have  bread,  cloth- 
ing, and  shelter  provided ;  and  does  not  acquire  the 
power  of  complete  self-support  until  a  time  varying 
from  fifteen  to  twenty  years  after  its  birth.  Now 
this  law  applies  to  the  mind  as  to  the  body.  For 
mental  pabulum  also,  every  higher  creature,  and 
especially  man,  is  at  first  dependent  on  adult  aid. 
Lacking  the  ability  to  move  about,  the  babe  is  as 
powerless  to  get  materials  on  which  to  exercise  its 
perceptions  as  it  is  to  get  supplies  for  its  stomach. 
Unable  to  prepare  its  own  food,  it  is  in  like  manner 
unable  to  reduce  many  kinds  of  knowledge  to  a  fit 
form  for  assimilation.  The  language  through  which 
all  higher  truths  are  to  be  gained  it  wholly  derives 
from  those  surrounding  it.  And  we  see  in  such  an 
example  as  the  Wild  Boy  of  Aveyron,  the  arrest  of 
development  that  results  when  no  help  is  received 
from  parents  and  nurses.  Thus,  in  providing  from 
day  to  day  the  right  kind  of  facts,  prepared  in  the 
right  manner,  and  giving  them  in  due  abundance  at 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  118 

appropriate  intervals,  there  fs  as  much  scope  for  ac- 
tive ministration  to  a  child's  mind  as  to  its  body. 
In  either  case  it  is  the  chief  function  of  parents  to 
see  that  the  conditions  requisite  to  growth  are  main- 
tained. And  as  in  supplying  aliment,  and  clothing, 
and  shelter,  they  may  fulfil  this  function  without  at 
all  interfering  with  the  spontaneous  development  of 
the  limbs  and  viscera  either  in  their  order  or  mode; 
so  they  may  supply  sounds  for  imitation,  objects  for 
examination,  books  for  reading,  problems  for  solu- 
tion, and,  if  they  use  neither  direct  nor  indirect  co- 
ercion, may  do  this  without  in  any  way  disturbing 
the  normal  process  of  mental  evolution;  or  rather, 
may  greatly  facilitate  that  process.  Hence  the  ad- 
mission of  the  doctrines  enunciated  does  not,  as 
some  might  argue,  involve  the  abandonment  of  all 
teaching;  but  leaves  ample  room  for  an  active  and 
elaborate  course  of  culture. 

Passing  from  generalities  to  special  considerations 
it  is  to  be  remarked  that  in  practice,  the  Pestalozzian 
system  seems  scarcely  to  have  fulfilled  the  promise 
of  its  theory.  We  hear  of  children  not  at  all  inter 
2eied  in  their  lessons, — disgusted  with  them  rather; 
and,  so  far  as  we  can  gather,  the  Pestalozzian  schools 
have  not  turned  out  any  unusual  proportion  of  dis- 


116  EDUCATION. 

tinguished  men, — if  even  they  have  reached  the  av- 
erage. We  are  not  surprised  at  this.  The  success 
of  every  appliance  depends  mainly  upon  the  intelli- 
gence with  which  it  is  used.  It  is  a  trite  remark, 
that,  having  the  choicest  tools,  an  unskilful  artisan 
will  botch  his  work ;  and  bad  teachers  will  fail  even 
with  the  best  methods.  Indeed,  the  goodness  of  the 
method  becomes  in  such  case  a  cause  of  failure  ;  as. 
to  continue  the  simile,  the  perfection  of  the  tool  be- 
comes in  undisciplined  hands  a  source  of  imperfec- 
tion in  results.  A  simple  unchanging,  almost  me- 
chanical routine  of  tuition  may  be  carried  out  by  the 
commonest  intellects,  with  such  small  beneficial  effect 
.AS  it  is  capable  of  producing  ;  but  a  complete  sys- 
tem,— a  system  as  heterogeneous  in  its  appliances  tis 
the  mind  in  its  faculties, — a  system  proposing  a  spe- 
cial means  for  each  special  end,  {emands  for  its  right 
employment  powers  such  as  few  teachers  possess 
The  mistress  of  a  dame-school  can  hear  spelling - 
lessons ;  any  hedge-schoolmaster  can  drill  boys  in  the 
multiplication  table ;  but  to  teach  spelling  rightly  by 
using  the  powers  of  the  letters  instead  of  their 
names,  or  to  instruct  in  numerical  combinations  by 
experimental  synthesis,  a  modicum  of  understand 
ing  is  needful :  and  to  pursue  a  like  rational  course 
throughout  the  entire  range  of  studies,  asks  an 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION  ill 

amount  of  judgment,  of  invention,  of  intellectual 
sympathy,  of  analytical  faculty,  which  we  shall 
never  see  applied  to  it  while  the  tutorial  office  is  held 
in  such  small  esteem.  The  true  education  is  prac- 
ticable only  to  the  true  philosopher.  Judge,  then, 
what  prospect  a  philosophical  method  now  has  of 
being  acted  out !  Knowing  so  little  as  we  yet  do 
>f  Psychology,  and  ignorant  as  our  teachers  are  of 
that  little,  what  chance  has  a  system  which  requires 
Psychology  for  its  basi^ 

Further  hindrance  and  discouragement  has  arisen 
from  confounding  the  Pestalozzian  principle  with 
the  forms  in  which  it  has  been  embodied.  Because 
particular  plans  have  not  answered  expectation,  dis- 
credit has  been  cast  upon  the  doctrine  associated 
with  them;  no  inquiry  being  made  whether  these 
plans  truly  conform  to  such  doctrine.  Judging  as 
asual  by  the  concrete  rather  than  the  abstract,  men 
aave  blamed  the  theory  for  the  bungliugs  of  the 
practice.  It  is  as  though  Papin's  futile  attempt  to 
construct  a  steam-engine  bad  been  held  to  prove 
that  steam  could  not  be  used  as  a  motive  power. 
Let  it  be  constantly  borne  in  mind  that  while  right 
in  his  fundamental  ideas  Pestalozzi  was  not  therefore 
right  in  all  his  applications  of  them :  and  we  believe 
the  fact  to  be  that  he  was  often  wrong.  As  described 


118  EDUCATION. 

even  by  his  admirers,  Pestalozzi  was  a  man  of  par> 
,tial  intuitions,  a  man  who  had  occasional  flashes  of 
insight,  rather  than  a  man  of  systematic  thought. 
His  first  great  success  at  Stantz  was  achieved  when 
he  had  no  books  or  appliances  of  ordinary  teaching, 
and  when  "  the  only  object  of  his  attention  was  to 
find  out  at  each  moment  what  instruction  his  chil- 
dren stood  peculiarly  in  need  of,  and  what  was  the 
best  manner  of  connecting  it  with  the  knowledge 
they  already  possessed."  Much  of  his  power  was 
due,  not  to  calmly  reasoned-out  plans  of  culture,  but 
to  his  profound  sympathy,  which  gave  him  an  in- 
stinctive perception  of  childish  needs  and  difficulties. 
He  lacked  the  ability  logically  to  co-ordinate  and  de- 
velop the  truths  which  he  thus  from  time  to  time 
laid  hold  of;  and  had  in  great  measure  to  leave  this 
to  his  assistants,  Kruesi,  Tobler,  Buss,  Niederer, 
and  S chin  id.  The  result  is  that  in  their  details  his 
own  plans,  and  those  vicariously  devised,  contain 
numerous  crudities  and  inconsistencies.  His  nursery- 
method,  described  in  "  The  Mother's  Manual,"  be- 
ginning as  it  does  with  a  nomenclature  of  the  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  body,  and  proceeding  next  to  specify 
their  relative  positions,  and  next  their  connections, 
may  be  proved  n  >.  at  all  in  accordance  with  the 
initial  stages  of  mental  evolution.  His  process  of 


BTELLECJT  it  EDUCATION.  119 

eeacmng  the  mother  t  jngue  by  formal  exercises  in 
the  meanings  of  words  and  in  the  construction  of 
lentences,  is  quite  needless,  and  must  entail  on  the 
pupil  loss  of  time,  labor,  and  happiness.  His  pro- 
posed mode  of  teaching  geography  is  utterly  un- 
pestalozzian.  And  often  where  his  plans  are  essen- 
tially sound  they  are  either  incomplete  or  vitiated 
by  some  remnant  of  the  old  regime.  While,  there° 
fore,  we  would  defend  in  its  entire  extent  the  general 
doctrine  which  Pestalozzi  inaugurated,  we  think 
great  evil  likely  to  result  from  an  uncritical  recep- 
tion of  his  specific  devices.  That  tendency  which 
mankind  constantly  exhibit  to  canonize  the  forms 
and  practices  along  with  which  any  great  truth  has 
been  bequeathed  to  them, — their  liability  to  prostrate 
their  intellects  before  the  prophet,  and  swear  by  his 
every  word, — their  proneriess  to  mistake  the  clothing 
of  the  idea  for  the  idea  itself ;  renders  it  needful 
to  insist  strongly  upon  the  distinction  between  the 
fundamental  principle  of  the  Pestalozzian  system, 
and  the  set  of  expedients  devised  for  its  practice : 
and  to  suggest  that  while  the  one  may  be  considered 
as  established,  the  other  is  probably  nothing  but  an 
adumbration 'of  the  normal  course  Indeed,  on  look- 
ing at  the  state  of  our  knowledge  we  may  be  quite 
sure  that  this  is  the  case.  Before  our  educational 


190  EDUCATION. 

methods  can  be  made  to  harmonize  in  character  an(J 
arrangement  with  the  faculties  in  their  mode  and 
order  of  unfolding,  it  is  first  needful  that  we  ascer- 
tain with  some  completeness  how  the  faculties  do 
unfold.  At  present  our  knowledge  of  the  matter 
extends  only  to  a  few  general  notions.  These  gen- 
eral notions  must  be  developed  in  detail, — must  be 
transformed  into  a  multitude  of  specific  propositions, 
before  we  can  be  said  to  possess  that  science  on 
which  the  art  of  education  must  be  based.  And 
then  when  we  have  definitely  made  out  in  what  suc- 
cession, and  in  what  combinations  the  mental  powers 
become  active,  it  remains  to  choose  out  of  the  many 
possible  ways  of  exercising  each  of  them  that  which 
best  conforms  to  its  natural  mode  of  action.  Evi- 
dently, therefore,  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  even 
our  most  advanced  modes  of  teaching  are  the  rigM) 
ones,  or  nearly  the  right  ones. 

Bearing  in  mind  then  this  distinction  between  the 
principle  and  the  practice  of  Pestalozzi,  and  infer* 
ring  from  the  grounds  assigned  that  the  last  must 
necessarily  be  very  defective,  the  reader  will  rate  at 
its  true  worth  the  dissatisfaction  with  the  system 
which  some  have  expressed ;  and!  -jrill  see  that  the 
due  realization  of  the  Pestalozzian  idea  remains  to 
he  achieved.  Should  he  argue,  however,  from  what 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  121 

has  just  been  said  that  no  such  realization  5s  at  pres- 
3nt  practicable,  and  that  all  effort  ougb.t  to  be  do- 
voted  to  the  preliminary  inquiry ;  we  reply,  that 
though  it  is  not  possible  for  a  scheme  of  culture  to 
tie  perfected  either  in  matter  or  form  until  a  rational 
Psychology  has  been  established,  it  is  possible,  with 
the  aid  of  certain  guiding  principles,  to  make  em» 
pirical  approximations  toward  a  perfect  scheme.  To 
prepare  the  way  for  further  research  we  will  now 
specify  these  principles.  Some  of  them  have  already 
been  more  or  less  distinctly  implied  in  the  foregoing 
pages;  but  it  will  be  well  here  to  state  them  all  in 
logical  order. 

1.  That  in  education  we  should  proceed  from  the 
simple  to  the  complex  is  a  truth  which  has  always 
been  to  some  extent  acted  upon ;  not  professedly, 
indeed,  nor  by  any  means  consistently.  The  mind 
qprows.  Like  all  things  that  grow  it  progresses  from 
ihe  homogeneous  to  the  heterogeneous ;  and  a  nor- 
mal training  system  being  an  objective  counterpart 
nf  this  subjective  process,  must  exhibit  the  like  pro- 
gression. Moreover,  regarding  it  from  this  point  of 
reiw,  we  may  see  that  this  formula  has  much  wider 
applications  than  at  first  appears.  For  its  rationale 
involves  not  only  that  we  should  proceed  from  the 


132 

single  to  the  combined  iii  the  teaching  of  eacfc 
branch  of  knowledge ;  but  that  we  should  do  the 
like  with  knowledge  as  a  whole.  As  the  mind,  coa 
sisting  at  first  of  but  few  active  faculties,  has  ita 
later-completed  faculties  successively  awakened,  and 
ultimately  comes  to  have  all  its  faculties,  in  simultar 
neous  action ;  it  follows  that  our  teachings  should 
begin  with  but  few  subjects  at  once,  and  successively 
adding  to  these,  should  finally  carry  on  all  subjects 
abreast — that  not  only  in  its  details  should  educa- 
tion proceed  from  the  simple  to  the  complex,  but  in 
its  ensemble  also. 

2.  To  say  that  our  lessons  ought  to  start  from 
the  concrete  and  end  in  the  abstract,  may  be  con« 
sidered  as  in  part  a  repetition  of  the  foregoing. 
Nevertheless  it  is  a  maxim  that  needs  to  be  stated : 
if  with  no  other  view,  then  with  the  view  of  show- 
ing in  certain  cases  what  are  truly  the  simple  and 
the  complex.  For  unfortunately  there  has  been 
much  misunderstanding  on  this  point.  General  for- 
mulas  which  men  have  devised  to  express  groups  of 
details,  and  which  have  severally  simplified  their  con- 
ceptions by  uniting  many  facts  into  one  fact,  they 
have  supposed  must  simplify  the  conceptions  of  the 
child  also  ;  quite  forgetting  that  a  generalization  ia 
simple  only  in  p-rnnnariaon  with  the  whole  mass  of 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  123 

particular  truths  it  comprehends — that  it  is  more 
complex  than  any  one  of  these  truths  taken  singly 
—that  only  after  many  of  these  single  truths  have 
been  acquired  does  the  generalization  ease  the  mem- 
ory and  he.p  the  reason — and  that  to  the  child  not 
possessing  these  single  truths  it  is  necessarily  a  mys- 
tery. Thus  confounding  two  kinds  of  simplification, 
teachers  have  constantly  erred  by  setting  out  with 
*4  first  principles  " :  a  proceeding  essentially,  though 
not  apparently,  at  variance  with  the  primary  rule  ; 
which  implies  that  the  mind  should  be  introduced  to 
principles  through  the  medium  of  examples,  and  so 
should  be  led  from  the  particular  to  the  general — 
from  the  concrete  to  the  abstract. 

3.  The  education  of  the  child  must  accord  both 
in  mode  and  arrangement  with  the  education  of 
mankind  as  considered  historically ;  or  in  other 
words,  the  genesis  of  knowledge  in  the  individual 
Bust  follow  the  same  course  as  the  genesis  of  knowl« 
*Jge  in  the  race.  To  M.  Comte  we  believe  society 
owes  the  enunciation  of  this  doctrine — a  doctrine 
which  we  may  accept  without  committing  ourselves 
to  his  theory  of  the  genesis  of  knowledge  either  in 
its  causes  or  its  order.  In  support  of  this  doctrine 
two  reasons  may  oe  assigned,  either  of  them  suffi- 
cient to  establish  it.  One  is  deducible  from  the  law 


194  EDUCATION. 

of  hereditary  transmission  as  considered  in  its  widet 
consequences.  For  if  it  be  true  that  men  exhibit 
likeness  to  ancestry  both  in  aspect  and  character— 
if  it  be  true  that  certain  mental  manifestations,  ae 
insanity,  will  occur  in  successive  members  of  the 
same  family  at  the  same  age — if,  passing  from  indi- 
vidual cases  in  which  the  traits  of  many  dead  ances- 
tors mixing  with  those  of  a  few  living  ones  greatlj 
obscure  the  law,  we  turn  to  national  types,  and  re- 
mark how  the  contrasts  between  them  are  persistent 
from  age  to  age — if  we  remember  that  these  respec- 
tive types  came  from  a  common  stock,  and  that 
hence  the  present  marked  differences  between  them 
must  have  arisen  fron.  the  action  of  modifying  cir- 
cumstances upon  succesi  o  generations  who  sev- 
trally  transmitted  the  accumulated  effects  to  their 
descendants — if  we  find  the  differences  to  be  now 
organic,  so  that  the  French  child  grows  into  a 
French  man  even  when  brought  up  among  strangers 
—and  if  the  general  fact  thus  illustrated  is  true  of 
the  whole  nature,  intellect  inclusive ;  then  it  follows 
that  if  there  be  an  order  in  which  the  human  race 
has  mastered  its  various  kinds  of  knowledge,  there 
will  arise  in  every  child  an  aptitude  to  acquire  these 
kinds  of  knowledge  in  the  same  order.  So  that  even 
were  the  order  intrinsically  indifferent,  it  would 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  1DB 

facilitate  education  to  lead  the  individual  mind 
through  the  steps  traversed  by  the  general  mind. 
But  the  order  is  not  intrinsically  indifferent ;  and 
hence  the  fundamental  reason  why  education  should 
be  a  repetition  of  civilization  in  little.  It  is  alike 
provable  that  the  historical  sequence  was,  in  its 
main  outlines,  a  necessary  one  ;  and  that  the  causes 
which  determined  it  apply  to  the  child  as  to  tlu 
race.  Not  to  specify  these  causes  in  detail,  it  wili 
suffice  here  to  point  out  that  as  the  mind  of  humanity 
placed  in  the  midst  of  phenomena  and  striving  to 
comprehend  them,  has,  after  endless  comparisons, 
speculations,  experiments,  and  theories,  reached  its 
present  knowledge  of  each  subject  by  a  specific 
route  ;  it  may  rationally  be  inferred  that  the  relation- 
ship between  mind  and  phenomena  is  such  as  to  pre- 
vent this  knowledge  from  being  reached  by  any 
other  route  ;  and  that  as  each  child's  mind  stands  in 
this  same  relationship  to  phenomena,  they  can  be 
accessible  to  it  only  through  the  same  route.  Hence 
in  deciding  upon  the  right  method  of  education,  an 
inquiry  into  the  method  of  civilization  will  help  to 
guide  us. 

4.  One  of  the  conclusions  to  which  such  an  in- 
quiry  leads  is,  that  in  each  branch  of  instruction  we 
should  proceed  from  the  empirical  to  the  rational.  A 


126  EDUCATION. 

leading  fact  in  numan  progress  is,  that  every  science 
is  evolved  out  of  its  corresponding  art.  It  results 
from  the  necessity  we  are  under,  both  individually 
and  as  a  race,  of  reaching  the  abstract  by  way  of  tli  3 
concrete,  that  there  must  be  practice  and  an  accru- 
ing experience  with  its  empirical  generalizations,  be- 
fore there  can  be  science.  Science  is  organized 
knowledge ;  and  before  knowledge  can  be  organized, 
some  of  it  must  first  be  possessed.  Every  study, 
therefore,  should  have  a  purely  experimental  intro- 
duction ;  and  only  after  an  ample  fund  of  observa- 
tions has  been  accumulated,  should  reasoning  begin. 
As  illustrative  applications  of  this  rule,  we  may  in- 
stance the  modern  course  of  placing  grammar,  not 
before  language,  but  after  it ;  or  the  ordinary  custom 
of  prefacing  perspective  by  practical  drawing.  By 
and  by  further  applications  of  it  will  be  indicated. 

5.  A  second  corollary  from  the  foregoing  general 
principle,  and  one  which  cannot  be  too  strenuously 
insisted  upon,  is,  that  in  education  the  process  of 
•elf-development  should  be  encouraged  to  the  fullest 
extent.  Children  should  be  led  to  make  their  own 
investigations,  and  to  draw  their  own  inferences. 
They  should  be  told  as  little  as  possible,  and  induced 
to  discover  as  much  as  possible.  Humanity  has  pro- 
gressed solely  by  self-instruetioii ;  and  that  to  achie?& 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  Vfl 

the  best  results,  each  mind  must  progress  somewhat 
after  the  same  fashion,  is  continually  proved  by  the 
marked  success  of  self-made  men.  Those  who  have 
been  brought  up  under  the  ordinary  school-drill,  and 
have  carried  away  with  them  the  idea  that  education 
is  practicable  only  in  that  style,  will  think  it  hope* 
less  to  make  children  their  own  teachers.  If,  hoTO 
ever,  they  will  call  to  mind  that  the  all-important 
knowledge  of  surrounding  objects  which  a  child  gets 
in  its  early  years  is  got  without  help— if  they  will  re- 
member that  the  child  is  self-taught  in  the  use  of  its 
mother  tongue — if  they  will  estimate  the  amount  of 
that  experience  of  life,  that  out-of-school  wisdom, 
which  every  boy  gathers  for  himself — if  they  will 
mark  the  unusual  intelligence  of  the  uncared-for 
London  gamin,  as  shown  in  all  the  directions  in  which 
his  faculties  have  been  tasked — if  further,  they  will 
think  how  many  minds  have  struggled  up  unaided, 
not  only  through  the  mysteries  of  our  irrationally 
planned  curriculum,  but  through  hosts  of  other  ob- 
stacles besides  ;  they  will  find  it  a  not  unreasonable 
conclusion,  that  if  the  subjects  be  put  before  him  in 
right  order  and  right  form,  any  pupil  of  ordinary 
capacity  will  surmount  his  successive  difficulties  with 
but  little  assistance.  Who  indeed  can  watch  the 
ceaseless  observation,  and  inquiry,  and  inference 


(36  EDUCATION. 

going  on  in  a  child's  mind,  or  listen  to  its  acute 
remarks  on  matters  within  the  range  of  its  fac- 
ulties, without  perceiving  that  these  powers  which  it 
manifests,  if  brought  to  bear  systematically  upon  any 
studies  within  the  same  range,  would  readily  master 
them  without  help  ?  This  need  for  perpetual  telling 
is  the  result  of  our  stupidity,  not  of  the  child's.  We 
drag  it  away  from  the  facts  in  which  it  is  interested 
and  which  it  is  actively  assimilating  of  itself;  we 
put  before  it  facts  far  too  complex  for  it  to  under- 
stand, and  therefore  distasteful  to  it ;  finding  that  it 
will  not  voluntarily  acquire  these  facts,  we  thrust 
them  into  its  mind  by  force  of  threats  and  punish- 
ment ;  by  thus  denying  the  knowledge  it  craves,  and 
cramming  it  with  knowledge  it  cannot  digest,  we 
produce  a  morbid  state  of  its  faculties,  and  a  conse- 
quent disgust  for  knowledge  in  general ;  and  when, 
as  a  result  partly  of  the  stolid  indolence  we  have 
brought  on,  and  partly  of  still  continued  unfitne&s 
in  its  studies,  the  child  can  understand  nothing  witlv 
out  explanation,  and  becomes  a  mere  passive  recipi. 
ent  of  our  instruction,  we  infer  that  education  md&t 
necessarily  be  carried  on  thus.  Having  by  ouf 
method  induced  helplessness,  we  straightway  make 
the  helplessness  a  reason  for  our  method.  Clearly 
then  the  experience  of  pedagogues  cannot  rationally 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  l*fi 

ue  Haoued  against  the  doctrine  we  are  defending1. 
And  whoever  sees  this  will  see  that  we  may  safely 
follow  the  method  of.  nature  throughout — may,  by  a 
skilful  ministration,  make  the  mind  as  self-develop- 
ing in  its  later  stages  as  it  is  in  its  earlier  ones  ;  and 
that  only  by  doing  this  can  we  produce  the  highest 
power  and  activity. 

6.  As  a  final  test  by  which  to  judge  any  plan  of 
culture,  should  come  the  question, — Does  it  create  a 
pleasurable  excitement  in  the  pupils?  When  iut 
doubt  whether  a  particular  mode  or  arrangement  ist 
or  is  not  more  in  harmony  with  the  foregoing  prin- 
ciples than  some  other,  we  may  safety  abide  by  this 
criterion.  Even  when,  as  considered  theoretically, 
the  proposed  course  seems  the  best,  yet  if  it  pro- 
duce no  interest,  or  less  interest  than  another 
course,  we  should  relinquish  it ;  for  a  child's  intel- 
lectual instincts  are  more  trustworthy  than  our  rea- 
sonings. In  respect  to  the  knowing  faculties,  we  may 
confidently  trust  in  the  general  law,  that  under  nor- 
mal conditions,  healthful  action  is  pleasurable,  while 
action  which  gives  pain  is  not  healthful.  Though  at 
present  very  incompletely  conformed  to  by  the  emo- 
tional nature,  yet  by  the  intellectual  nature,  or  at 
least  by  those  parts  of  it  which  the  child  exhibits, 
thir  law  is  almost  wholly  conformed  to.  The  re- 
9 


130  EDUCATION. 

pugnances  to  this  and  that  study  which  vex  the 
ordinary  teacher,  are  not  innate,  but  result  from  hit1 
unwise  system.  Fellenberg  says,  "  Experience  has 
taught  me  that  indolence  in  young  persons  is  so  di- 
rectly opposite  to  their  natural  disposition  to  ac- 
tivity, that  unless  it  is  the  consequence  of  bad  ed- 
ucation, it  is  almost  invariably  connected  with  some 
constitutional  defect."  And  ihe  spontaneous  activ- 
ity to  which  children  are  thus  prone,  is  simply  the 
pursuit  of  those  pleasures  which  the  healthful  ex- 
ercise of  the  faculties  gives.  It  is  true  that  some 
of  the  higher  mental  powers  as  yet  but  little  de- 
veloped in  the  race,  and  congenitally  possessed  in 
any  considerable  degree  only  by  the  most  advanced, 
are  indisposed  to  the  amount  of  exertion  required 
of  them.  But  these,  in  virtue  of  their  very  com- 
plexity, will  in  a  normal  course  of  culture,  come 
last  into  exercise,  and  will  therefore  have  no  de- 
mands made  upon  them  until  the  pup.i  has  arrived 
at  an  age  when  ulterior  motives  can  bo  brought 
into  play,  and  an  indirect  pleasure  made  to  coun- 
terbalance a  direct  displeasure.  With  all  faculties 
lower  than  these,  however,  the  direct  gratification 
consequent  on  activity  is  the  normal  stimulus; 
and  under  good  management  the  only  needful  stim- 
ulus. When  we  are  obliged  to  fall  back  on  som. 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  131 

other,  we  must  take  the  fact  as  evidence  that  we 
are  on  the  wrong  track.  Experience  is  daily  show- 
ing with  greater  clearness  that  there  is  always  a 
method  to  be  found  productive  of  interest — even 
of  delight ;  and  it  ever  turns  out  that  this  is  the 
method  proved  by  all  other  tests  to  be  the  right  one. 

With  most,  these  guiding  principles  will  weigh 
but  little  if  left  in  this  abstract  form.  Partly,  there- 
fore, to  exemplify  their  application,  and  partly  with 
a  view  of  making  sundry  specific  suggestions,  we 
propose  now  to  pass  from  the  theory  of  education  to 
the  practice  of  it. 

It  was  the  opinion  of  Pestalozzi — an  opinion  which 
has  ever  since  his  day  been  gaining  ground — that 
education  of  some  kind  should  begin  from  the 
cradle.  Whoever  has  watched  with  any  discern- 
ment, the  wide-eyed  gaze  of  the  infant  at  surround- 
ing objects,  knows  very  well  that  education  does  be- 
gin thus  early,  whether  we  intend  it  or  not ;  and 
that  these  fingerings  and  suckings  of  everything  it 
can  lay  hold  of,  these  open-mouthed  listenings  to 
every  sound,  are  the  first  steps  in  the  series  which 
ends  in  the  discovery  of  unseen  planets,  the  inven- 
tion of  calculating  engines,  the  production  of  great 
paintings,  or  the  composition  of  symphonies  and 
operas.  This  activity  of  the  faculties  from  the  very 


132  EDUCATION. 

first  being  spontaneous  and  inevitable,  tne  question 
is  whether  \ve  shall  supply  in  due  variety  the  ma 
terials  on  which  they  may  exercise  themselves ;  and 
to  the  question  so  put,  none  but  an  affirmative  an- 
swer can  be  given.  As  before  said,  ho\vever,  agree- 
,ment  with  Pestalozzi's  theory  does  not  involve  agree- 
Iment  with  his  practice ;  and  here  occurs  a  case  in 
point.  Treating  of  instruction  in  spelling  he  says : — 

"The  spelling-book  ought,  therefore,  to  contain  all  the  sounds 
of  the  language,  and  these  ought  to  be  taught  in  every  family 
from  the  earliest  infancy.  The  child  who  learns  his  spelling-book 
ought  to  repeat  them  to  the  infant  in  the  cradle,  before  it  is  able 
to  pronounce  even  one  of  them,  so  that  they  may  be  deeply  im- 
pressed upon  its  mind  by  frequent  repetition." 

Joining  this  with  the  suggestions  for  "a  nursery- 
method,"  as  set  down  in  his  "  Mother's  Manual," 
in  which  he  makes  the  names,  positions,  connections,, 
numbers,  properties,  and  uses  of  the  limbs  and  body 
his  first  lessons,  it  becomes  clear  that  Pestalozzi's 
notions  on  early  mental  development  were  too  crude 
to  enable  him  to  devise  judicious  plans.  Let  us  in« 
quire  into  the  course  which  Psychology  dictates. 

The  earliest  impressions  which  the  mind  can  as- 
similate, are  those  given  to  it  by  the  undecompos 
able  sensations — resistance,  light,  sound,  etc.     Man 
ifestly  decomposable  states  of  consciousness  cannot 
exist  before  the  states  of  consciousness  out  of  which 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  133 


they  are  composed.  There  can  be  no  idea  of 
until  some  familiarity  with  light  in  its  gradations 
and  qualities,  or  resistance  in  its  different  intensities, 
has  been  acquired  ;  for,  as  has  been  long  known,  we 
recognize  visible  form  by  means  of  varieties  of  light, 
and  tangible  form  by  means  of  varieties  of  resist- 
ance. Similarly,  no  articulate  sound  is  cognizable 
until  the  inarticulate  sounds  which  go  to  make  it  up 
have  been  learned.  And  thus  must  it  be  in  every 
other  case.  Following,  therefore,  the  necessary  law 
of  progression  from  the  simple  to  the  complex,  we 
should  provide  for  the  infant  a  sufficiency  of  objects 
presenting  different  degrees  and  kinds  of  resistance, 
a  sufficiency  of  objects  reflecting  different  amounts 
and  qualities  of  light,  and  a  sufficiency  of  sounds 
contrasted  in  their  loudness,  their  pitch  and  their 
timbre.  How  fully  this  d  priori  conclusion  is  con- 
firmed by  infantile  instincts  all  will  see  on  being  re- 
minded of  the  delight  which  every  young  child  has 
in  biting  its  toys,  in  feeling  its  brother's  bright 
jacket-buttons,  and  pulling  papa's  whiskers  —  how  ab- 
sorbed it  becomes  in  gazing  at  any  gaudily  painted 
object,  to  which  it  applies  the  word  "  pretty,"  when 
it  can  pronounce  it,  wholly  in  virtue  of  the  bright 
colors  —  and  how  its  face  broadens  into  a  laugh  at 
the  tattlings  of  its  nurse  the  snapping  of  a  visitor's 


134  EDUCATION. 

fingers,  or  any  sound  which  it  has  not  before  heard. 
Fortunately,  the  ordinary  practices  of  the  nursery 
fulfil  these  early  requirements  of  education  to  a  con- 
siderable degree.  Much,  however,  remains  to  be 
done  ;  and  it  is  of  more  importance  that  it  should  be 
done  than  at  first  appears.  Every  faculty  during 
the  period  of  its  greatest  activity — the  period  in 
which  it  is  spontaneously  evolving  itself — is  capable 
of  receiving  more  vivid  impressions  than  at  any  other 
period.  Moreover,  as  these  simplest  elements  must 
eventually  be  mastered,  and  as  the  mastery  of  them 
whenever  achieved  must  take  time,  it  becomes  an 
economy  of  time  to  occupy  this  first  stage  of  child- 
hood, during  which  no  other  intellectual  action  is 
possible,  in  gaining  a  complete  familiarity  with  them 
in  all  their  modifications.  Add  to  which,  that  both 
temper  and  health  will  be  improved  by  the  continual 
gratification  resulting  from  a  due  supply  of  these  im 
pressions  which  every  child  so  greedily  assimilates. 
Space,  could  it  be  spared,  might  here  be  well  filled 
by  some  suggestions  toward  a  more  systematic  min- 
istration to  these  simplest  of  the  perceptions.  But 
it  must  suffice  to  point  out  that  any  such  ministra 
tion  ought  to  be  based  upon  the  general  truth  that  in 
the  development  of  every  faculty,  markedly  con- 
trasted impressions  are  the  first  to  be  distinguished  • 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION,  135 

that  hence  sounds  greatly  differing  in  loudness  and 
pitch,  colors  very  remote  from  each  other,  and  sub- 
stances widely  unlike  in  hardness  or  texture,  should 
be  the  first  supplied ;  and  that  in  each  case  the  pro- 
gression must  be  by  slow  degrees  to  impressions 
more  nearly  allied. 

Passing  on  to  object-lessons,  which  manifestly 
form  a  natural  continuation  of  this  primary  culture 
of  the  senses,  it  is  to  be  remarked,  that  the  system 
commonly  pursued  is  wholly  at  variance  with  the 
method  of  nature,  as  alike  exhibited  in  infancy,  in 
adult  life,  and  in  the  course  of  civilization.  "  The 
child,"  says  M.  Marcel,  "  must  be  shown  how  all  the 
parts  of  an  object  are  connected,  efrt.: "  and  the 
various  manuals  of  these  object-lessons  severally 
sontain  lists  of  the  facts  which  the  child  is  to  be 
told  respecting  each  of  the  things  put  before  it. 
Now  it  needs  but  a  glance  at  the  daily  life  of  the 
infant  to  see  that  all  the  knowledge  of  things  which 
IB  gained  before  the  acquirement  of  speech,  is  self' 
gained — that  the  qualities  of  hardness  and  weight 
issociated  with  certain  visual  appearances,  the  pos« 
session  of  particular  forms  and  colors  by  particular 
persons,  the  production  of  special  sounds  by  animals 
of  special  aspects,  are  phenomena  which  it  observes 
for  itself.  In  manhood  too,  when  there  are  no 


136  EDUCATION. 

longer  teachers  at  hand,  the  observations  and  infer- 
ences required  for  daily  guidance,  must  be  made  un« 
helped  ;  and  success  in  life  depends  upon  the  accur- 
acy and  completeness  with  which  they  are  made. 
Is  it  probable  then,  that  while  the  process  displayed 
ID  the  evolution  of  humanity  at  large,  is  repeated 
alike  by  the  infant  and  the  man,  a  reverse  process 
must  be  followed  during  the  period  between  infancy 
and  manhood?  and  that  too,  even  in  so  simple  a 
thing  as  learning  the  properties  of  objects?  Is  it 
not  obvious,  on  the  contrary,  that  one  method  must 
be  pursued  throughout  ?  And  is  not  nature  perpet- 
ually thrusting  this  method  upon  us,  it  we  had  but 
the  wit  to  see  it,  and  the  humility  to  adopt  it? 
What  can  be  more  manifest  than  the  desire  of  chil- 
dren for  intellectual  sympathy?  Mark  how  the 
infant  sitting  on  your  knee  thrusts  into  your  face 
the  toy  it  holds,  that  you  too  may  look  at  it.  See 
when  it  makes  a  creak  with  its  wet  finger  on  the 
table,  how  it  turns  and  looks  at  you ;  does  it  again, 
and  again  looks  at  you ;  thus  saying  as  clearly  as  it 
can — "  Hear  this  new  sound."  Watch  how  the 
elder  children  come  into  the  room  exclaiming — 
"Mamma,  see  what  a  curious  thing,"  "Mamma, 
look  at  this,"  "  Mamma,  look  at  that ; "  and  would 
continue  the  habit,  did  not  the  silly  mamma  teLJ 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  137 

them  not  to  tease  her.  Observe  how,  when  out 
with  the  nurse-maid,  each  little  one  runs  up  to  her 
with  the  new  flower  it  has  gathered,  to  show  her 
how  pretty  it  is,  and  to  get  her  also,  to  say  it  is 
pretty.  Listen  to  the  eager  volubility  with  which 
every  urchin  describes  any  novelty  he  has  been  to 
see,  if  only  he  can  find  some  one  who  will  attend 
with  any  interest.  Does  not  the  induction  lie  on 
the  surface?  Is  it  not  clear  that  we  must  conform 
our  course  to  these  intellectual  instincts — that  we 
must  just  systematize  the  natural  process — that  we 
must  listen  to  all  the  child  has  to  tell  us  about  each 
object,  must  induce  it  to  say  everything  it  can  think 
of  about  such  object,  must  occasionally  draw  its 
attention  to  facts  it  has  not  yet  observed,  with  the 
view  of  leading  it  to  notice  them  itself  whenever 
they  recur,  and  must  go  on  by  and  by  to  indicate  or 
supply  new  series  of  things  for  a  like  exhaustive 
examination  ?  See  the  way  in  which,  on  this 
method,  the  intelligent  mother  conducts  her  lessons.' 
Step  by  step  she  familiarizes  her  little  boy  with  the 
names  of  the  simpler  attributes,  hardness,  softness, 
color,  taste,  size,  etc.,  in  doing  which  she  finds  him 
eagerly  help  by  bringing  this  to  show  her  that  it  is 
red,  and  the  other  to  make  her  feel  that  it  is  hard, 
as  fast  as  she  gives  hint1  wotib  for  these  properties. 


138  EDUCATION. 

Each  additional  property,  as  she  draws  his  attention 
to  it  in  some  fresh  thing  which  he  brings  her,  shct 
takes  care  to  mention  in  connection  with  those  he 
already  knows ;  so  that  by  the  natural  tendency  to 
Imitate,  he  may  g3$  into  the  habit  of  repeating  them 
one  after  another.  Gradually  as  there  occur  cases 
in  which  he  omits  to  name  one  or  more  of  the  prop- 
erties he  has  become  acquainted  with,  she  introduces 
the  practice  of  asking  him  whether  there  is  not 
something  more  that  he  can  tell  her  about  the  thing 
he  has  got.  Probably  he  does  not  understand. 
After  letting  him  puzzle  awhile  she  tells  him ;  per 
haps  laughing  at  him  a  little  for  his  failure.  A  few 
recurrences  of  this,  and  he  perceives  what  is  to  be 
done.  When  next  she  says  she  knows  something 
more  about  the  object  than  he  has  told  her,  his 
pride  is  roused ;  he  looks  at  it  intently ;  he  thinks 
over  all  that  he  has  heard ;  and  the  problem  being 
9asy,  presently  finds  it  out.  He  is  full  of  glee  at  his 
success,  and  she  sympathizes  with  him.  In  common 
with  every  child,  he  delights  in  the  discovery  of  his 
powers.  He  wishes  for  more  victories,  and  goes  in 
quest  of  more  things  about  which  to  tell  her.  As 
his  faculties  unfold  she  adds  quality  after  quality  to 
his  list :  progressing  from  hardness  and  softness  to 
roughness  and  smoothness,  from  color  to  polish* 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  igg 

from  simple  bodies  to  composite  ones — thus  con- 
stantly complicating  the  problem  as  he  gains  com- 
petence, constantly  taxing  his  attention  and  memory 
to  a  greater  extent,  constantly  maintaining  his  in- 
terest by  supplying  him  with  new  impressions  sucn 
as  his  mind  can  assimilate,  and  constantly  gratifying 
him  by  conquests  over  such  small  difficulties  as  he 
can  master.  In  doing  this  she  is  manifestly  but 
following  out  that  spontaneous  process  that  was 
going  on  during  a  still  earlier  period — simply  aiding 
self-evolution;  and  is  aiding  it  in  the  mode  sug- 
gested by  the  boy's  instinctive  behavior  to  her. 
Manifestly,  too,  the  course  she  is  pursuing  is  the 
one  best  calculated  to  establish  a  habit  of  exhaustive 
observation ;  which  is  the  professed  aim  of  these 
lessons.  To  tell  a  child  this  and  to  show  it  the  other, 
is  not  to  teach  it  how  to  observe,  but  to  make  it  a 
mere  recipient  of  another's  observations :  a  proceed- 
ing which  weakens  rather  than  strengthens  its 
powers  of  self-instruction — which  deprives  it  of  the 
pleasures  resulting  from  successful  activity— which 
presents  this  all-attractive  knowledge  under  the 
aspect  of  formal  tuition — and  which  thus  generates 
that  indifference  and  even  disgust  with  which  these 
object-lessons  are  not  unfrequently  regarded.  On 
the  other  hand,  to  pursue  the  course  above  de- 


140  EDUCATION. 

scribed  is  simply  to  guide  the  intellect  to  its  appro- 
priate  food;  to  join  with  the  intellectual  appetites 
their  natural  adjuncts — amour  propre  and  the  desire 
for  sympathy ;  to  induce  by  the  union  of  all  these 
an  intensity  of  attention  which  insures  perceptions 
alike  vivid  and  complete;  and  to  habituate  the 
mind  from  the  beginning  to  that  practice  of  self-help 
which  it  must  ultimately  follow. 

Object-lessons  should  not  only  be  carried  on  after 
quite  a  different  fashion  from  that  commonly  pur* 
sued,  but  should  be  extended  to  a  range  of  things 
far  wider,  and  continue  to  a  period  far  later,  than 
now.  They  should  not  be  limited  to  the  contents  of 
the  house ;  but  should  include  those  of  the  fields  and 
hedges,  the  quarry  and  the  sea-shore.  They  should 
not  cease  with  early  childhood ;  but  should  be  so 
kept  up  during  youth  as  insensibly  to  merge  into 
the  investigations  of  the  naturalist  and  the  man  of 
science.  Here  again  we  have  but  to  follow  nature's 
leadings.  Where  can  be  seen  an  intenser  delight 
than  that  of  children  picking  up  new  flowers  and 
watching  new  insects,  or  hoarding  pebbles  and  shells  ? 
And  who  is  there  but  perceives  that  by  sympathizing 
with  them  they  may  be  led  on  to  any  extent  of  in- 
quiry into  the  qualities  and  structures  of  these 
things  ?  Every  botanist  who  tab  had  children  with 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  i4l 

him  in  the  woods  and  the  lanes  must  have  noticed 
how  eagerly  they  joined  in  his  pursuits,  how  keenly 
they  searched  out  plants  for  him,  how  intently  they 
watched  whilst  he  examined  them,  how  they  over- 
whelmed him  with  questions.  The  consistent  fol- 
lower of  Bacon — the  "  servant  and  interpreter  of 
nature,"  will  see  that  we  ought  modestly  to  adopt 
the  course  of  culture  thus  indicated.  Having  gained 
due  familiarity  with  the  simpler  properties  of  inor- 
ganic objects,  the  child  should  by  the  same  process 
be  led  on  to  a  like  exhaustive  examination  of  the 
things  it  picks  up  in  its  daily  walks — the  less  com- 
plex  facts  they  present  being  alone  noticed  at  first : 
in  plants,  the  color,  number,  and  forms  of  the  petals 
and  shapes  of  the  stalks  and  leaves  :  in  insects,  the 
numbers  of  the  wings,  legs,  and  antennae,  and  their 
colors.  As  these  become  fully  appreciated  and  in- 
variably  observed,  further  facts  may  be  successively 
introduced  :  in  the  one  case,  the  numbers  of  stamens 
and  pistils,  the  forms  of  the  flowers,  whether  radial 
or  bilateral  in  symmetry,  the  arrangement  and  char- 
acter of  the  leaves,  whether  opposite  or  alternate, 
stalked  or  sessile,  smooth  or  hairy,  serrated,  toothed, 
or  crenate  ;  in  the  other,  the  divisions  of  the  body, 
the  segments  of  the  abdomen,  the  markings  of  the 
wings,  the  number  of  joints  in  the  legs,  and  the 


142  EDUCATION. 

forms  of  the  smaller  organs — the  system  pursued 
throughout  being  that  of  making  it  the  child's  am- 
bition to  say  respecting  everything  it  finds,  all  that 
can  be  said.  That  when  a  fit  age  has  been  reached, 
the  means  of  preserving  these  plants  which  have 
become  so  interesting  in  virtue  of  the  knowledge 
obtained  of  them,  may  as  a  great  favor  be  supplied ; 
and  eventually,  as  a  still  greater  favor,  may  also 
be  supplied  the  apparatus  needful  for  keeping  the 
larvae  of  our  common  butterflies  and  moths  through 
their  transformations — a  practice  which,  as  we  can 
personally  testify,  yields  the  highest  gratification  ;  is 
continued  with  ardor  for  years ;  when  joined  with 
the  formation  of  an  entomological  collection,  adds 
immense  interest  to  Saturday-afternoon  rambles; 
and  forms  an  admirable  introduction  to  the  study  of 
physiology. 

We  are  quite  prepared  to  hear  from  many  that  all 
this  is  throwing  away  time  and  energy  ;  and  that 
children  would  be  much  better  occupied  in  writing 
their  copies  or  learning  their  pence-tables,  and  so  fit- 
ting themselves  for  the  business  of  life.  We  regret 
that  such  crude  ideas  of  what  constitutes  education 
and  such  a  narrow  conception  of  utility,  should  still 
be  generally  prevalent.  Saying  nothing  on  the  need 
for  a  systematic  culture  of  the  perceptions  and  the 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  141 

value  of  the  practices  above  mculcated  as  subserving 
that  need,  we  are  prepared  to  defend  them  even  on 
the  score  of  the  knowledge  gained.  If  men  are  to  be 
mere  cits,  mere  porers  over  ledgers,  with  no  ideas 
beyond  their  trades — if  it  is  well  that  they  should  be 
as  the  cockney  whose  conception  of  rural  pleasures 
extends  no  further  than  sitting  in  a  tea  gardei 
smoking  pipes  and  drinking  porter ;  or  as  the  squire 
who  thinks  of  woods  as  places  for  shooting  in,  of  un« 
cultivated  plants  as  nothing  but  weeds,  and  who 
classifies  animals  into  game,  vermin,  and  stock — then 
indeed  it  is  needless  for  men  to  learn  anything  that 
does  not  directly  help  to  replenish  the  till  and  fill 
the  larder.  But  if  there  is  a  more  worthy  aim  for  ua 
than  to  be  drudges — if  there  are  other  uses  in  the 
things  around  us  than  their  power  to  bring  money—- 
if there  are  higher  faculties  to  be  exercised  than 
acquisitive  and  sensual  ones — if  the  pleasures  which 
poetry  and  art  and  science  and  philosophy  can  bring 
are  of  any  moment — then  it  is  desirable  that  the  in- 
stinctive inclination  which  every  child  shows  to  ob- 
serve natural  beauties  and  investigate  natural  phe« 
nomena  should  be  encouraged.  But  this  gross 
utilitarianism  which  is  content  to  come  into  the 
world  and  quit  it  again  without  knowing  what  kind 
of  a  world  it  is  or  what  it  contains,  may  be  met  ou 


144  EDUCATION. 

its  own  ground.  It  will  by  and  by  be  found  that  * 
knowledge  of  the  laws  of  life  is  more  important  than 
any  other  knowledge  whatever — that  the  laws  of  lite 
include  not  only  all  bodily  and  mental  processes, 
but  by  implication  all  the  transactions  of  the  house 
and  the  street,  all  commerce,  all  politics,  all  morals 
— and  that  therefore  without  a  due  acquaintance 
with  them  neither  personal  nor  social  conduct  can  be 
rightly  regulated.  It  will  eventually  be  seen  too, 
that  the  laws  of  life  are  essentially  the  same  through* 
out  the  whole  organic  creation;  and  further,  thai 
they  cannot  be  properly  understood  in  their  complex 
manifestations  until  they  have  been  studied  in  their 
simpler  ones.  And  when  this  is  seen,  it  will  be  also 
seen  that  in  aiding  the  child  to  acquire  the  out-of- 
door  information  for  which  it  shows  so  great  au 
avidity,  and  in  encouraging  the  acquisition  of  such 
information  throughout  youth,  we  are  simply  IA- 
ducing  it  to  store  up  the  raw  material  for  future 
organization — the  facts  that  will  one  day  bring  home 
tc  it  with  due  force  those  great  generalizations  o/ 
science  by  which  actions  may  be  rightly  guided. 

The  spreading  recognition  of  drawing  as  an  ele- 
ment of  education,  is  one  amongst  many  signs  of 
the  more  rational  views  on  mental  culture  now  be- 
ginning to  prevail.  Once  more  it  may  be  remarked 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  146 

that  teachers  are  at  length  adopting  the  course  which 
nature  has  for  ages  been  pressing  upon  their  notice. 
The  spontaneous  efforts  made  by  children  to  repre- 
sent the  men,  houses,  trees,  and  animals  around  them 
— on  a  slate  if  they  can  get  nothing  better,  or  with 
lead-pencil  on  paper,  if  they  can  beg  them — are 
familiar  to  all.  To  be  shown  through  a  picture-book 
is  one  of  their  highest  gratifications ;  and  as  usual, 
their  strong  imitative  tendency  presently  generates 
in  them  the  ambition  to  make  pictures  themselves 
also.  This  attempt  to  depict  the  striking  things  they 
see  is  a  further  instinctive  exercise  of  the  perceptions 
— a  means  whereby  still  greater  accuracy  and  com- 
pleteness of  observation  is  induced.  And  alike  by 
seeking  to  interest  us  in  their  discoveries  of  the 
sensible  properties  of  things,  and  by  their  endeavors 
to  draw,  they  solicit  from  us  just  that  kind  of  culture 
which  they  most  need. 

Had  teachers  been  guided  by  nature's  hints  not 
only  in  the  making  of  drawing  a  part  of  education, 
but  in  the  choice  of  their  modes  of  teaching  it,  they 
would  have  done  still  better  than  they  have  done. 
What  is  it  that  the  child  first  tries  to  represent  ? 
Things  that  are  large,  things  that  are  attractive  in 
color,  things  round  which  its  pleasurable  associa- 
tions most  cluster — human  beings  from  whom  it  has 


146  EDUCATION. 

received  so  many  emotions,  cows  and  dogs  which  in- 
terest by  the  many  phenomena  they  present,  houses 
that  are  hourly  visible  and  strike  by  their  size  and 
contrast  of  parts.  And  which  of  all  the  processes 
of  representation  gives  it  most  delight?  Coloring. 
Paper  and  pencil  are  good  in  default  of  something 
better ;  but  a  box  of  paints  and  a  brush — these  are 
the  treasures.  The  drawing  01  outlines  immediately 
becomes  secondary  to  coloring — is  gone  through 
mainly  with  a  view  to  the  coloring  ;  and  if  leave  can 
be  got  to  color  a  book  of  prints,  how  great  is  the 
favor  ?  Now,  ridiculous  as  such  a  position  will  seem 
to  drawing-masters,  who  postpone  coloring  and  who 
teach  form  by  a  dreary  discipline  of  copying  lines,  we 
believe  that  the  course  of  culture  thus  indicated  is 
the  right  one.  That  priority  of  color  to  form,  which, 
AS  already  pointed  out,  has  a  psychological  basis,  arid 
in  virtue  of  which  psychological  basis  arises  this 
strong  preference  in  the  child,  should  be  recognized 
from  the  very  beginning ;  and  from  the  very  begin- 
ning also  the  things  imitated  should  be  real.  That 
greater  delight  in  color  which  is  not  only  conspicu- 
ous in  children  but  persists  in  most  persons  through- 
out life,  should  be  continuously  employed  as  the 
natural  stimulus  to  the  mastery  of  the  c  <  rnparativelv 
difficult  and  unattractive  form — should  be  the 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  147 

prospective  reward  for  the  achievement  jf  form.  And 
these  instinctive  attempts  to  represent  interesting 
actualties  should  be  all  along  encouraged ;  in  the 
conviction  that  as,  by  a  widening  experience,  smaller 
and  more  practicable  objects  become  interesting 
they  too  will  be  attempted  ;  and  that  so  a  gradual  ap- 
proximation wi7  be  made  toward  imitations  having 
some  resemblance  to  the  realities.  No  matter  ho\f 
grotesque  the  shapes  produced :  no  matter  how 
daubed  and  glaring  the  colors.  The  question  is  not 
whether  the  child  is  producing  good  drawings :  the 
question  is,  whether  it  is  developing  its  faculties.  It 
has  first  to  gain  some  command  over  its  fingers,  some 
crude  notions  of  likeness ;  and  this  practice  is  bettei 
than  any  other  for  these  ends ;  seeing  that  it  is  the 
spontaneous  and  the  interesting  one.  During  these 
early  years,  be  it  remembered,  no  formal  drawing- 
lessons  are  possible :  shall  we  therefore  repress,  or 
neglect  to  aid,  these  efforts  at  self-oulture  ?  or  shall 
we  encourage  and  guide  them  as  normal  exercises 
of  the  perceptions  and  the  powers  of  manipulation  ? 
If  by  the  supply  of  cheap  woodcuts  to  be  colored, 
and  simple  contour-maps  to  have  their  boundary  lines 
tinted,  we  can  not  only  pleasurably  draw  out  the 
faculty  of  color,  but  can  incidentally  produce  some 
familiarity  with  the  outlines  of  things  and  countries, 


148  EDUCATION. 

and  some  ability  to  move  the  brush  stea.*,^  ;  and  if 
by  the  supply  of  temptingly-painted  objects  we  can 
keep  up  the  instinctive  practice  of  making  represen- 
tations, however  rough,  it  must  happen  that  by  the 
time  drawing  is  commonly  commencec1  there  will 
exist  a  facility  that  would  else  have  been  absent 
\;Time  will  have  been  gained ;  and  trouble^  both  to 
teacher  and  pupil,  saved. 

From  all  that  has  been  said,  it  may  be  readily  in- 
ferred that  we  wholly  disapprove  of  the  practice  of 
drawing  from  copies ;  and  still  more  so  of  that 
formal  discipline  in  making  straight  lines  and 
curved  lines  and  compound  lines,  with  which  it  is  the 
fashion  of  some  teachers  to  begin.  We  regret  to  find 
that  the  Society  of  Arts  has  recently,  in  its  series  of 
manuals  on  "  Rudimentary  Ait-Instruction,"  given 
its  countenance  to  an  elementary  drawing-book, 
which  is  the  most  vicious  in  principle  that  we  have 
seen.  We  refer  to  the  "  Outline  from  Outline,  01 
from  the  Flat,"  by  John  Bell,  sculptor.  As  expressed 
in  the  prefatory  note,  this  publication  proposes  "  to 
place  before  the  student  a  simple,  yet  logical  mode 
of  instruction  ; "  and  to  this  end  sets  out  with  a  nun] 
bcr  of  definitions  thus : — 

"A  simple  line  in  drawing  is  a  thin  mark  drawn  from  one 
fttmt  to  another. 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  148 


"Lines  may  be  divided,  as  to  their  nature  in  drawing, 

two  classes  :— 

"  1.  Straight,  which  are  marks  that  go  the  shortest  road  be« 
tween  two  points,  as  A  B. 

"2.  Or  Curved,  which  are  marks  which  do  not  go  the  shortest 
road  between  two  points,  as  C  D." 

And  so  the  introduction  progresses  to  horizontal 
lines,  perpendicular  lines,  oblique  lines,  angles  of 
the  several  kinds,  and  the  various  figures  which  lines 
and  angles  make  up.  The  work  is,  in  short,  a  gram' 
mar  Df  form,  with  exercises.  And  thus  the  system 
of  commencing  with  a  dry  analysis  of  elements, 
which,  in  the  teaching  of  language,  has  been  ex- 
ploded, is  to  be  re-instituted  in  the  teaching  of 
drawing.  The  abstract  is  to  be  preliminary  to  the 
concrete.  Scientific  conceptions  are  to  precede  em« 
pirical  experiences.  That  this  is  an  inversion  of  the 
normal  order,  we  need  scarcely  repeat.  It  has  been 
well  said  concerning  the  custom  of  prefacing  the 
art  of  speaking  any  tongue  by  a  drilling  in  the  parts 
of  speech  and  their  functions,  that  it  is  about  a* 
reasonable  as  prefacing  the  art  of  walking  by  a 
course  of  lessons  on  the  bones,  muscles,  and  nerves 
of  the  legs  ;  and  much  the  same  thing  may  be  said 
of  the  proposal  to  preface  the  art  of  representing 
objects  by  a  nomenclature  and  definitions  of  the 
lines  which  they  yield  on  analysis.  These  techni- 
calities are  alike  repulsive  and  needless.  They  ren- 


150  EDUCATION. 

der  the  study  distasteful  at  the  very  outset;  and  all 
jwith  the  view  of  teaching  that,  which,  in  the  course 
^of  practice,  will  be  learned  unconsciously.  Just  as 

I  the  child  incidentally  gathers  the  meanings  of  ordin- 
i 
ary  words  from  the  conversations  going  on  around 

it,  without  the  help  of  dictionaries;  so,  from  the  re- 
marks on  objects,  pictures,  and  its  own  drawings, 
will  it.  presently  acquire,  not  only  without  effort  but 
even  pleasurably,  those  same  scientific  terms  which, 
if  presented  at  first,  are  a  mystery  and  a  weariness. 
If  any  dependence  is  to  be  placed  upon  the  general 
principles  of  education  that  have  been  laid  down, 
the  process  of  learning  to  draw  should  be  through- 
out continuous  with  those  efforts  of  early  childhood 
described  above,  as  so  worthy  of  encouragement. 
By  the  time  that  the  voluntary  practice  thus  initi- 
ated has  given  some  steadiness  of  hand,  and  some 
tolerable  ideas  of  proportion,  there  will  have  arisen 
a  vague  notion  of  body  as  presenting  its  three  di- 
mensions in  perspective.  And  when,  after  sundry 
abortive,  Chinese-like  attempts  to  render  this  ap- 
pearance on  paper  there  has  grown  up  a  pretty  clear 
perception  of  the  thing  to  be  achieved,  and  a  desire 
to  achieve  it,  a  first  lesson  in  empirical  perspective 
may  be  given  by  means  of  the  apparatus  occasionally 
used  iu  explaining  perspective  as  a  science.  This- 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  151 

sounds  formidable  ;  but  the  experiment  is  both  com* 
preheusive  and  interesting  to  any  boy  or  girl  of 
ordinary  intelligence.  A  plate  of  glass  so  framed  as 
to  stand  vertically  on  the  table,  being  placed  before 
the  pupil,  and  a  book,  or  like  simple  object,  laid  on 
the  other  side  of  it,  he  is  requested,  whilst  keeping 
the  eye  in  one  position,  to  make  ink  dots  upon  the 
glass,  so  that  they  may  coincide  with,  or  hide  the 
corners  of  this  object.  He  is  then  told  to  join  these 
dots  by  lines ;  on  doing  which  he  perceives  that  the 
lines  he  makes  hide,  or  coincide  with,  the  outlines 
of  the  object.  And  then  on  being  asked  to  put  a 
sheet  of  paper  on  the  other  side  of  the  glass,  he  dis- 
covers that  the  lines  he  has  thus  drawn  represent 
the  object  as  he  saw  it.  They  not  only  look  like  it, 
but  he  perceives  that  they  must  be  like  it,  because 
he  made  them  agree  with  its  outlines ;  and  by  re- 
moving the  paper  he  can  repeatedly  convince  him- 
•elf  that  they  do  agree  with  its  outlines.  The  fact 
IB  new  and  striking ;  and  serves  him  as  an  experi- 
mental demonstration,  that  lines  of  certain  lengths, 
placed  in  certain  directions  on  a  plane,  can  represent 
lines  of  other  lengths,  and  having  other  directions  in 
space.  Subsequently,  by  gradually  changing  the 
position  of  the  object  he  may  be  led  to  observe  how 
some  lines  shorten  and  disappear,  whilst  others  come 


152  EDUCATION. 

into  sight  and  lengthen.  The  convergence  of  parallel 
lines,  and,  indeed,  all  the  leading  facts  of  perspective 
may,  from  time  to  time,  be  similarly  illustrated  to 
him.  If  he  has  been  duly  accustomed  to  self-help, 
he  will  gladly,  when  it  is  suggested,  make  the  at- 
tempt to  draw  one  of  these  outlines  upon  paper,  by 
the  eye  only ;  and  it  may  soon  be  made  an  exciting 
aim  to  produce,  unassisted,  a  representation,  as  like 
as  he  can,  to  one  subsequently  sketched  on  the  glass. 
Thus,  without  the  unintelligent  mechanical  practice 
of  copying  other  drawings,  but  by  a  method  at  once 
simple  and  attractive — rational,  yet  not  abstract,  a 
familiarity  with  the  linear  appearances  of  things,  and 
a  faculty  of  rendering  them,  may  be,  step  by  step, 
acquired.  To  which  advantages  add  these: — that 
even  thus  early  the  pupil  learns,  almost  uncon. 
sciously,  the  true  theory  of  a  picture — namely,  that 
it  is  a  delineation  of  objects  as  they  appear  when  pro 
jected  on  a  plane  placed  between  them  and  the  eye  j 
and  that  when  he  reaches  a  fit  age  for  commencing , 
scientific  perspective  he  is  already  thoroughly  ac- 
quainted with  the  facts  which  form  its  logical  basis 
As  exhibiting  a  rational  mode  of  communicating 
primary  conceptions  in  geometry,  we  cannot  d< 
better  than  quote  the  following  passage  from  Mr, 
Wyse: — 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  153 

u  A  child  has  been  in  the  habit  of  using  cubes  for  arithmetic } 
<et  him  use  them  also  for  the  elements  of  geometry.  I  would  be- 
^in  with  solids,  the  reverse  of  the  usual  plan.  It  saves  all  the 
difficulty  of  absurd  definitions,  and  bad  explanations  on  points, 
lines,  and  surfaces,  which  are  nothing  but  abstractions.  .  .  . 
A  cube  presents  many  of  the  principal  elements  of  geometry; 
it  at  once  exhibits  points,  straight  lines,  parallel  lines,  angles, 
parallelograms,  etc.,  etc.  These  cubes  are  divisible  into  various 
parts.  The  pupil  has  already  been  familiarized  with  such  divisions 
in  numeration,  and  he  now  proceeds  to  a  comparison  of  their  several 
parts,  and  of  the  relation  of  these  parts  to  each  other.  .  .  . 
From  thence  he  advances  to  globes,  which  furnish  him  with  ele- 
wentary  notions  of  the  circle,  of  curves  generally,  etc.,  etc. 

"  Being  tolerably  familiar  with  solids,  he  may  now  substitute 
pbtnes.  The  transition  may  be  made  very  easy.  Let  the  cube, 
for  instance,  be  cut  into  thin  divisions,  and  placed  on  paper :  he 
will  then  see  as  many  plane  rectangles  as  he  has  divisions :  so 
with  all  the  others.  Globes  may  be  treated  in  the  same  manner ;  he 
will  thus  see  how  surfaces  really  are  generated,  and  be  enabled  to 
abstract  them  with  facility  in  every  solid. 

"He  has  thus  acquired  the  alphabet  and  reading  of  geometry. 
He  now  proceeds  to  write  it. 

"The  simplest  operation,  and  therefore  the  first,  is  merely  to 
place  these  planes  on  a  piece  of  paper,  and  pass  the  pencil  round 
them.  When  this  has  been  frequently  done,  the  plane  may  be  put 
at  a  little  distance,  and  the  child  required  to  copy  it,  and  so  on." 

A  stock  of  geometrical  conceptions  having  been 
obtained,  in  some  such  manner  as  this  recommended 
by  Mr.  Wyse,  a  further  step  may,  in  course  of  time, 
tie  taken,  by  introducing  the  practice  of  testing  the 
correctness  of  all  figures  drawn  by  the  eye ;  thut 
alike  exciting  an  ambition  to  make  them  exact,  and 
continually  illustrating  the  difficulty  of  fulfilling 
that  ambition.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  geom- 
etry had  its  origin  (as,  indeed,  the  word  implies)  in 
Ihe  methods  discovered  by  artisans  and  others,  of 
making  accurate  measurement  for  the  foundations  of 


164  EDUCATION. 

buildings,  areas  of  inclosures,  and  the  like ;  and  that 
its  truths  came  to  be  treasured  up,  merely  with  e 
^iew  to  their  immediate  utility.  They  should  be  in 
fcroduced  to  the  pupil  under  analogous  relationships. 
In  the  cutting  out  of  pieces  for  his  card-houses,  in 
the  drawing  of  ornamental  diagrams  for  coloring, 
and  in  those  various  instructive  occupations  which 
an  inventive  teacher  will  lead  him  into,  he  may  be 
for  a  length  of  time  advantageously  left,  like  the 
primitive  builder,  to  tentative  processes ;  and  will 
so  gain  an  abundant  experience  of  the  difficulty  of 
achieving  his  aims  by  the  unaided  senses.  When, 
having  meanwhile  undergone  a  valuable  discipline  of 
the  perceptions,  he  has  reached  a  fit  age  for  using  a 
pair  of  compasses,  he  will,  whilst  duly  appreciating 
these  as  enabling  him  to  verify  his  ocular  guesses, 
be  still  hindered  by  the  difficulties  of  the  approxima- 
tive method.  In  this  stage  he  may  be  left  for  a 
further  period  :  partly  as  being  yet  too  young  for 
anything  higher ;  partly  because  it  is  desirable  that 
ae  should  be  made  to  feel  still  more  strongly  the 
want  of  systematic  contrivances.  If  the  acquisition 
of  knowledge  is  to  be  made  continuously  interesting ; 
and  if,  in  the  early  civilization  of  the  child,  as  in  the 
early  civilization  cf  the  race,  science  becomes  a* 
tractive  only  as  ministering  to  <"* ;  it  is  manifest 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  158 

Hiat  the  proper  preliminary  to  geometry  is  a  long 
!  practice  in  those  constructive  processes  which  geom- 
3try  will  facilitate.  Observe  that  here,  too,  nature 
points  the  way.  Almost  invariably,  children  show  a 
strong  propensity  to  cut  out  things  in  paper,  to 
make,  to  build-— a  propensity  which,  if  duly  encour- 
aged and  directed,  will  not  only  prepare  the  way  for 
scientific  conceptions,  but  will  develop  those  powers 
of  manipulation  in  which  most  people  are  so  defi- 
cient. 

When  the  observing  and  inventive  faculties  have 
attained  the  requisite  power,  the  pupil  may  be  in- 
troduced to  empirical  geometry ;  that  is — geometry 
dealing  with  methodical  solutions,  but  not  with  the 
demonstrations  of  them.  Like  all  other  transitions 
in  education,  this  should  be  made  not  formally  but  in- 
cidentally ;  and  the  relationship  to  constructive  art 
should  still  be  maintained.  To  make  a  tetrahedron 
(In  cardboard,  like  one  given  to  him,  is  a  problem 
which  will  alike  interest  the  pupil,  and  serve  as  a 
convenient  starting-point.  In  attempting  this,  he 
finds  it  needful  to  draw  four  equilateral  triangles  ar- 
ranged in  special  positions.  B3i"ng  unable  in  the 
absence  of  an  exact  method  to  do  this  accurately  he 
discovers  on  putting  the  triangles  into  their  respec- 
tive positions,  that  he  canno**  make  their  sides  fit, 


156  EDUCATION. 

and  that  their  angles  do  not  properly  meet  at  the 
apex.  He  may  now  be  shown  how  by  describing  a; 
couple  of  circles,  each  of  these  triangles  may  be 
drawn  with  perfect  correctness  and  without  guess- 
ing ;  and  after  his  failure  he  will  duly  value  the  in- 
formation. Having  thus  helped  him  to  the  solution 
of  his  first  problem,  with  the  view  of  illustrating  the 
nature  of  geometrical  methods,  he  is  in  future  to  be 
left  altogether  to  his  own  ingenuity  in  solving  the 
questions  put  to  him.  To  bisect  a  line,  to  erect  a 
perpendicular,  to  describe  a  square,  to  bisect  an 
angle,  to  draw  a  line  parallel  to  a  given  line,  to  de- 
scribe a  hexagon,  are  problems  which  a  little  patience 
will  enable  him  to  find  out.  And  from  these  he  may 
be  led  on  step  by  step  to  questions  of  a  more  com 
plex  kind;  all  of  which,  under  judicious  manage- 
ment, he  will  puzzle  through  unhelped.  Doubtless, 
many  of  those  brought  up  under  the  old  regime, 
will  look  upon  this  assertion  sceptically.  We 
speak  from  facts,  however,  and  those  neither  few 
nor  special.  We  have  seen  a  class  of  boys  be- 
come so  interested  in  making  out  solutions  to 
these  problems,  as  to  look  forward  to  their  geom- 
etry lesson  as  a  chief  event  of  the  week.  Within 
the  last  month,  we  have  been  told  of  one  girl's 
school,  in  which  seine  <tf  the  young  ladies  voi 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  157 

nntariiy  occupy  themselves  with  geometrical  ques- 
tions out  of  school-hours ;  and  of  another,  in  whicb 
they  not  only  do  this,  but  in  which  one  of  them  is 
begging  for  problems  to  find  out  during  the  holidays 
— both  which  facts  we  state  on  the  authority  of  the 
teacher.  There  could  indeed  be  no  stronger  proofs 
than  are  thus  afforded  of  the  practicability  and  the 
immense  advantage  of  self-development.  A  branch 
of  knowledge  which  as  commonly  taught  is  dry  and 
even  repulsive,  may,  by  following  the  method  of  na- 
ture, be  made  extremely  interesting  and  profoundly 
beneficial.  We  say  profoundly  beneficial,  because  the 
effects  are  not  confined  to  the  gaining  of  geometrical 
facts,  but  often  revolutionize  the  whole  state  of 
mind.  It  has  repeatedly  occurred,  that  those  who 
have  been  stupefied  by  the  ordinary  school-drill—by 
its  abstract  formulas,  by  its  wearisome  tasks,  by  its 
cramming — have  suddenly  had  their  intellects 
roused,  by  thus  ceasing  to  make  them  passive  recip 
ients,  and  inducing  them  to  become  active  discov- 
erers. The  discouragement  brought  about  by  bad 
teaching  having  been  diminished  by  a  little  synr 
pathy,  and  sufficient  perseverance  induced  to  achieve 
a  first  success,  there  arises  a  revulsion  of  feeling 
affecting  the  whole  nature.  They  no  longer  find 
themselves  incompetent ,  thev  too  can  do  something. 


158  EDUCATION. 

And  gradually  as  success  follows  success,  the  incu> 
bus  of  despair  disappears,  and  they  attack  the  dif- 
iculties  of  their  other  studies  with  a  courage  that 
insures  conquest. 

This  empirical  geometry  which  presents  an  endlesp 
series  of  problems,  and  should  be  continued  along 
with  other  studies  for  years,  may  throughout  be  ad 
vantageously  accompanied  by  those  concrete  appli« 
cations  of  its  principles  which  serve  as  its  prelim- 
inary.  After  the  cube,  the  octahedron,  and  the 
various  forms  of  pyramid  and  prism  have  been  mas- 
tered, may  come  the  more  complex  regular  bodies — 
the  dodecahedron,  and  the  icosahedron — to  construct 
which  out  of  single  pieces  of  card-board  requires 
considerable  ingenuity.  From  these,  the  transition 
may  naturally  be  made  to  such  modified  forms  of  the 
regular  bodies  as  are  met  with  in  crystals — the  trun« 
cated  cube,  the  cube  with  its  dihedral  as  well  as  its 
solid  angles  truncated,  the  octahedron  and  the 
various  prisms  as  similarly  modified ;  in  imitating 
which  numerous  forms  assumed  by  different  metals 
and  salts,  an  acquaintance  with  the  leading  facts  cf 
mineralogy  will  be  incidentally  gained.  After  long 
jontinuance  in  exercises  of  this  kind,  rational  geom- 
etry, as  may  be  supposed,  presents  no  obstacles. 
Constantly  habituated  to  contemplate  relationship 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  15« 

of  form  and  quantity,  and  vaguely  perceiving  from 
time  to  time  the  necessity  of  certain  results  as 
reached  by  certain  means,  the  pupil  comes  to  regard 
the  demonstrations  of  Euclid  as  the  missing  supple- 
ments to  his  familiar  problems.  His  well-disciplined 
faculties  enable  him  easily  to  master  its  successive 
propositions,  and  to  appreciate  their  value  ;  and  he 
has  the  occasional  gratification  of  finding  some  of 
his  own  methods  proved  to  be  true.  Thus  he  enjoys 
what  is  to  the  unprepared  a  dreary  task.  It  only 
remains  to  add,  that  his  mind  will  presently  arrive  at 
a  fit  condition  for  that  most  valuable  of  all  exercises 
for  the  reflective  faculties — the  making  of  original 
demonstrations.  Such  theorems  as  those  appended 
to  the  successive  books  of  the  Messrs.  Chambers' 
Euclid,  will  soon  become  practicable  to  him ;  and  in 
proving  them  the  process  of  self-development  will  be 
not  intellectual  only,  but  moral. 

To  continue  much  further  these  suggestions  would 
be  to  write  a  detailed  treatise  on  education,  which 
we  do  not  purpose.  The  foregoing  outlines  of  plans 
for  exercising  the  perceptions  in  early  childhood  foi 
conducting  object-lessons  for  teaching  drawing  and 
geometry,  must  be  considered  as  roughly-sketched 
illustrations  of  the  method  dictated  by  the  genera? 
principles  previously  specified.  We  believe  that  on 


160  EDUCATION. 

examination  they  will  be  found  not  only  to  progress 
from  the  simple  to  the  complex,  from  the  concrete 
to  the  abstract,  from  the  empirical  to  the  rational ; 
but  to  satisfy  the  further  requirements  that  educa- 
tion shall  be  a  repetition  of  civilization  in  little, 
that  it  shall  be  as  much  as  possible  a  process  of  seii- 
evoltition,  and  that  it  shall  be  pleasurable.  Thai 
there  shou' :  be  one  type  of  method  capable  of  sat- 
isfying all  these  conditions,  tends  alike  to  verify  the 
conditions,  and  to  prove  that  type  of  method  the 
right  one.  And  when  we  add  that  this  method  is 
the  logical  outcome  of  the  tendency,  characterizing 
all  modern  systems  of  instruction — that  it  is  but  an 
adoption  in  full  of  the  method  of  nature  which  they 
adopt  partially — that  it  displays  this  complete  adop- 
tion of  the  method  of  nature,  not  only  by  conform- 
ing to  the  above  principles,  but  by  following  the 
suggestions  which  the  unfolding  mind  itself  gives, 
facilitating  its  spontaneous  activities,  and  so  aiding 
the  developments  which  nature  is  busy  with — when 
we  add  this,  there  seems  abundant  reason  to  con- 
clude, that  the  mode  of  procedure  above  exempli 
fied,  closely  approximates  to  the  true  one. 

A  few  paragraphs  must  be  appended  in  further 
inculcation  of  the  two  general  principles,  alike  the 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  161 

most  important  and  the  least  attended  to :  we  mean 
the  principle  that  throughout  youth,  as  in  early 
childhood  and  in  maturity,  the  process  shall  be  one 
of  self -instruction ;  and  the  obverse  principle,  that 
the  mental  action  induced  by  this  process  shall  be 
throughout  intrinsically  grateful.  If  progression 
from  simple  to  complex,  and  from  concrete  to  ab- 
stract, be  considered  the  essential  requirements  as 
dictated  by  abstract  psychology,  then  do  these  re- 
quirements that  knowledge  shall  be  self -mastered,  and 
pleasurably  mastered,  become  the  tests  by  which  we 
may  judge  whether  the  dictates  of  abstract  psychology 
are  being  fulfilled.  If  the  first  embody  the  leading 
generalizations  of  the  science  of  mental  growth,  the 
last  are  the  chief  canons  of  the  art  of  fostering 
mental  growth.  For  manifestly  if  the  steps  in  our 
curriculum  are  so  arranged  that  they  can  be  succes- 
sively ascended  by  the  pupil  himself  with  little  or 
no  help,  they  must  correspond  with  the  stages  of 
evolution  in  his  faculties;  and  manifestly  if  the 
successive  achievements  of  these  steps  a^e  intrinsi 
cally  gratifying  to  him,  it  follows  that  they  require 
no  more  than  a  normal  exercise  of  his  powers. 

But  the  making  education  a  process  of  self-evolu- 
tion has  other  advantages  than  this  of  keeping  our 

lessois  in  the   right  order.     In  the   first  place,  it 
ii 


tee  EDUCATION. 

guarantees  a  vividness  and  permanency  of  i 
gion  which  the  usual  methods  can  never  pro- luce. 
Any  piece  of  knowledge  which  the  pupil  has  himself 
acquired,  any  problem  which  he  has  himself  solved, 
becomes  by  virtue  of  the  conquest  much  more  thor- 
oughly his  than  it  could  else  be.  The  preliminary 
activity  of  mind  which  his  success  implies,  the  con- 
centration of  thought  necessary  to  it,  and  the  ex- 
citement consequent  on  his  triumph,  conspire  to 
register  all  the  facts  in  his  memory  in  a  way  that  no 
mere  information  heard  from  a  teacher,  or  read  in  a 
school-book,  can  be  registered.  Even  if  he  fails,  the 
tension  to  which  his  faculties  have  been  wound  up 
insures  his  remembrance  of  the  solution  when  given 
to  him,  better  than  half  a  dozen  repetitions  would. 
Observe  again,  that  this  discipline  necessitates  a 
continuous  organization  of  the  knowledge  he  ac- 
quires. It  is  in  the  very  nature  of  facts  and  infer- 
ences, assimilated  in  this  normal  manner,  that  they 
successively  become  the  premises  of  further  con- 
clusions,— the  means  of  solving  still  further  ques- 
tions. The  solution  of  yesterday's  problem  helps 
the  pupil  in  mastering  to-day's.  Thus  the  knowl- 
edge is  turned  into  faculty  as  soon  as  it  is  taken  in, 
and  forthwith  aids  in  the  general  function  of  think- 
ing—does not  lie  merely  written  in  the  pages  of  aa 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  163 

Internal  library,  as  when  rote-learned.  Mark  further, 
the  importance  of  the  moral  culture  which  this  con- 
stant self-help  involves.  Courage  in  attacking  diffi- 
culties, patient  concentration  of  the  attention,  per- 
severance  through  failures — these  are  characteristics 
which  after-life  specially  requires;  and  these  are 
characteristics  which  this  system  of  making  the  mind 
work  for  its  food  specially  produces.  That  it  is 
thoroughly  practicable  to  carry  out  instruction  after 
this  fashion  we  can  ourselves  testify ;  having  been 
in  youth  thus  led  to  successively  solve  the  compara- 
tively complex  problems  of  Perspective.  And  that 
leading  teachers  have  been  gradually  tending  in  this 
direction  is  indicated  alike  in  the  saying  of  Fellen- 
berg,  that  "  the  individual,  independent  activity  of 
the  pupil  is  of  much  greater  importance  than  the 
ordinary  busy  officiousness  of  many  who  assume  the 
office  of  educators ; "  in  the  opinion  of  Horace 
Mann,  that  "  unfortunately  education  amongst  us  at 
present  consists  too  much  in  telling,  not  in  training;" 
and  in  the  remark  of  M.  Marcel  that  "what  the 
learner  discovers  by  mental  exertion  is  better  known 
than  what  is  told  to  him." 

Similarly  with  the  correlative  requirement,  that  the 
method  of  culture  pursued  shall  be  one  productive 
of  an  intrinsically  happy  activity, — an  activity  not 


164  EDUCATION. 

aappy  in  virtue  of  extrinsic  rewards  to  be  obtained, 
but  in  virtue  of  its  own  healthfulness.  Conformity 
to  this  requirement  not  only  guards  us  against 
thwarting  the  normal  process  of  evolution,  but  inci- 
dentally secures  positive  benefits  of  importance. 
Unless  we  are  to  return  to  an  ascetic  morality,  the 
maintenance  of  youthful  happiness  must  be  consid- 
ered as  in  itself  a  worthy  aim.  Not  to  dwell  upon 
this,  however,  we  go  on  to  remark  that  a  pleasurable 
state  of  feeling  is  far  more  favorable  to  intellectual 
action  than  one  of  indifference  or  disgust.  Every 
one  knows  that  things  read,  heard,  or  seen  with  in- 
terest, are  better  remembered  than  those  read,  heard, 
or  seen  with  apathy.  In  the  one  case  the  faculties 
appealed  to  are  actively  occupied  with  the  subject 
presented  ;  in  the  other  they  are  inactively  occupied 
-,vith  it ;  and  the  attention  is  continually  drawn  away 
after  more  attractive  thoughts.  Hence  the  impres- 
sions are  respectively  strong  and  weak.  Moreover, 
the  intellectual  listlessness  which  a  pupil's  lack  of 
interest  in  any  study  involves,  is  further  complicated 
by  his  anxiety,  by  his  fear  of  consequences,  which 
distract  his  attention,  and  increase  the  difficulty  he 
finds  in  bringing  his  faculties  to  bear  upon  these  facts 
that  ire  repugnant  to  them.  Clearly,  therefore,  the 
efficiency  of  any  intellectual  action  will,  other  things 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  165 

equal,   be  proportionate  to  the  gratification  with 
which  it  is  performed. 

It  should  be  considered  also,  that  important  moral 
consequences  depend  upon  the  habitual  pleasure  or 
pain  which  daily  lessons  produce.  No  one  can  com. 
pare  the  faces  and  manners  of  two  boys —  the  one 
made  happy  by  mastering  interesting  subjects,  and 
the  other  made  miserable  by  disgust  with  his  studies, 
by  consequent  failure,  by  cold  looks,  by  threats,  by 
punishment — without  seeing  that  the  disposition  of 
the  one  is  being  benefitted,  and  that  of  the  other 
greatly  injured.  Whoever  has  marked  the  effect  of 
intellectual  success  upon  the  mind,  and  the  power 
of  the  mind  over  the  body,  will  see  that  in  the  one 
case  both  temper  and  health  are  favorably  affected ; 
whilst  in  the  other  there  is  danger  of  permanent 
moroseness,  of  permanent  timidity,  and  even  of  per« 
manent  constitutional  depression.  To  all  which  con« 
siderations  we  must  add  the  further  one,  that  the  re* 
lationship  between  teachers  and  their  pupils  is,  other 
things  equal,  rendered  friendly  and  influential,  or  an- 
tagonistic  and  powerless,  according  as  the  system  of 
culture  produces  happiness  or  misery.  Human  be- 
ings are  at  the  mercy  of  their  associated  ideas.  A 
daily  minister  of  pain  cannot  fail  to  be  regarded  with 
a  secret  dislike,  and  if  he  causes  no  emotions  but 


106  EDUCATION. 

gainful  ones,  will  inevitably  be  hated.  Conversely 
he  who  constantly  aids  children  to  their  ends,  hourly 
provides  them  with  the  satisfactions  of  conquest, 
hourly  encourages  them  through  their  difficulties  and 
sympathizes  in  their  successes,  cannot  fail  to  be  liked  ; 
nay,  if  his  behavior  is  consistent  throughout,  must 
be  loved.  And  when  we  remember  how  efficient  and 
benign  is  the  control  of  a  master  who  is  felt  to  be  a 
friend,  when  compared  with  the  control  of  one  who 
is  looked  upon  with  aversion,  or  at  best  indifference, 
we  may  infer  that  the  indirect  advantages  of  con- 
ducting education  on  the  happiness  principle  do 
not  fall  far  short  of  the  direct  ones.  To  all  who 
question  the  possibility  of  acting  out  the  system  here 
advocated,  we  reply  as  before,  that  not  only  does 
theory  point  to  it,  but  experience  commends  it.  To 
ihe  many  verdicts  of  distinguished  teachers  who 
since  Pestalozzi's  time  have  testified  this,  may  be 
here  added  that  of  Professor  Pillans,  who  asserts  t.iat 
**  where  young  people  are  taught  as  they  ought  to  be, 
they  are  quite  as  happy  in  school  as  at  play,  seldom 
less  delighted,  nay,  often  more,  with  the  well-directed 
exercise  of  their  mental  energies,  than  with  that  of 
their  muscular  powers." 

As  suggesting  a  final  reason  for  making  educa- 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  IffJ 

fcion  a  process  of  self-instruction,  and  by  consequence 
a  process  of  pleasurable  instruction,  we  may  advert 
to  the  fact  that,  in  proportion  as  it  is  made  so,  is 
there  a  probability  that  education  will  not  cease  wheq 
schooldays  end.  As  long  as  the  acquisition  oi 
knowledge  is  rendered  habitually  repugnant,  so  long 
will  there  be  a  prevailing  tendency  to  discontinue  it 
when  free  from  the  coercion  of  parents  and  masters. 
And  when  the  acquisition  of  knowledge  has  been 
rendered  habitually  gratifying,  then  will  there  be  as 
prevailing  a  tendency  to  continue,  without  superin- 
tendence, that  same  self-culture  previously  carried 
on  under  superintendence.  These  results  are  in- 
evitable. While  the  laws  of  mental  association  re- 
main true — while  men  dislike  the  things  and  places 
that  suggest  painful  recollections,  and  delight  in 
those  which  call  to  mind  bygone  pleasures — painful 
lessons  will  make  knowledge  repulsive,  and  pleasure- 
ible  lessons  will  make  it  attractive.  The  men  to 
orhom  in  boyhood  information  came  in  dreary  tasks 
afong  with  threats  of  punishment,  and  who  were 
uever  led  into  habits  of  independent  inquiry,  are  un- 
likely to  be  students  in  after  years ;  while  those  to 
whom  it  came  in  the  natural  forms,  at  the  proper 
times,  and  who  remember  its  tacts  as  not  only  inter- 


168  EDUCATION. 

esting  in  themselves,  but  as  the  occasions  01  a  long 
series  ot  gratifying  successes,  are  likely  to  continue 
through  life  that  self-instruction,  commenced  in 
youth. 


MORAL  EDUCATION.  16P 


CHAPTER  III. 

MOKAL   EDUCATION. 

STRANGELY  enough,  the  most  glaring  defect  in 
our  programmes  of  education  is  entirely  overlooked. 
While  much  is  being  done  in  the  detailed  improve- 
ment of  our  systems  in  respect  both  of  matter  and 
manner,  the  most  pressing  desideratum  has  not  yet 
been  even  recognized  as  a  desideratum.  To  prepare 
the  young  for  the  duties  of  life  is  tacitly  admitted  by 
all  to  be  the  end  which  parents  and  schoolmasters 
should  have  in  view ;  and  happily  the  value  of  the 
things  taught,  and  the  goodness  of  the  method  fol- 
lowed in  teaching  them,  are  now  ostensibly  judged 
by  their  fitness  to  this  end.  The  propriety  of  sub- 
stituting for  an  exclusively  classical  training  a  train- 
ing in  which  the  modern  languages  shall  have  a 
share,  is  argued  on  this  ground.  The  necessity  of 
increasing  the  amount  of  science  is  urged  for  like 
reasons.  But  though  some  care  is  taken  to  fit  youth 
of  both  sexes  for  society  and  citizenship,  no  care 
whatever  is  taken  to  fit  them  for  the  still  more  im- 
portant position  they  will  ultimately  have  to  fill — 


HO  EDUCATIOM. 

the  position  of  parents.  While  it  is  seen  tnat  tot 
the  purpose  of  gaining  a  livelihood,  an  elaborate 
preparation  is  needed,  it  appears  to  be  thought 
Uiat  for  the  bringing  up  of  children,  no  preparation 
whatever  is  needed.  While  many  years  are  spent  by 
a  boy  in  gaining  knowledge,  of  which  the  chief  value 
is  that  it  constitutes  "  the  education  of  a  gentle- 
man ; "  and  while  many  years  are  spent  by  a  girl  in 
those  decorative  acquirements  which  fit  her  for  even- 
ing parties ;  not  an  hour  is  spent  by  either  of  them 
in  preparation  for  that  gravest  of  all  responsibilities 
-—the  management  of  a  family.  Is  it  that  this  re- 
sponsibility is  but  a  remote  contingency  ?  On  the 
contrary,  it  is  certain  to  devolve  on  nine  out  of  ten. 
Is  it  that  the  discharge  of  it  is  easy  ?  Certainly  not : 
of  all  functions  which  the  adult  has  to  fulfil  this  ia 
the  most  difficult.  Is  it  that  each  may  be  trustee! 
by  self -instruction  to  fit  himself,  or  herself,  for  thfi 
office  of  parent?  No:  not  only  is  the  need  for  sucl. 
self -instruction  unrecognized,  but  the  complexity  o) ! 
the  subject  renders  it  the  one  of  all  others  in  vvhici 
self -instruction  is  least  likely  to  succeed  No  rational 
plea  can  be  put  forward  for  leaving  the  Art  of  Edu 
cation  out  of  our  curriculum.  Whether  as  bearing 
upon  the  happiness  of  parents  themselves,  or  whethei 
aa  affecting  the  characters  and  lives  of  their  childre* 


MORAL  EDUCATION.  171 

and  remote  descendants,  we  must  admit  that  a 
knowledge  of  the  right  methods  of  juvenile  culture, 
physical,  intellectual,  and  moral,  is  a  knowledge 
second  to  none  in  importance.  This  topic  shoulc 
occupy  the  highest  and  last  place  in  the  course  of  in- 
struction passed  through  by  each  man  and  woman. 
As  physical  maturity  is  marked  by  the  ability  to  pro- 
duce offspring,  so  mental  maturity  is  marked  by  the 
ability  to  train  those  offspring.  The  subject  which  in- 
volves all  other  subjects,  and  therefore  the  subject  in 
which  the  education  of  every  one  should  culminate^  is 
the  Theory  and  Practice  of  Education. 

In  the  aosence  of  this  preparation,  the  manage- 
ment of  children,  and  more  especially  the  moral 
management,  is  lamentably  bad.  Parents  either 
never  think  about  the  matter  at  all,  or  else  their 
conclusions  are  crude,  and  inconsistent.  In  most 
cas»»s,  and  especially  on  the  part  of  mothers,  the 
reatment  adopted  on  every  occasion  is  that  which 
the  impulse  of  the  moment  prompts  :  it  springs  not 
from  any  reasoned-out  conviction  as  to  what  will 
most  conduce  to  the  child's  welfare,  but  merely  ex- 
presses the  passing  parental  feelings,  whether  good 
or  ill ;  and  varies  from  hour  to  hour  as  these  feelings 
vary.  Or  if  these  blind  dictates  of  passion  are  sup- 
plemented by  any  definite  doctrines  and  methods, 


173  EDUCATION. 

they  are  those  that  have  been  handed  down  from  the 
past,  or  those  suggested  by  the  remembrances  of 
ehildhood,  or  those  adopted  from  nurses  and  servants 
—msthods  devised  not  by  the  enlightenment,  but  by 
the  ignorance  of  the  time.  Commenting  on  the 
chaotic  state  of  opinion  and  practice  relative  to 
family  government,  Richter  writes  :— 

"  If  the  secret  variances  of  a  large  class  of  ordinary  fathers  were 
brought  to  light,  and  laid  down  as  a  plan  of  studies,  and  reading 
catalogued  for  a  moral  education,  they  would  run  somewhat  after 
this  fashion : — In  the  first  hour  '  pure  morality  must  be  read  to  the 
child,  either  by  myself  or  the  tutor ; '  in  the  second,  *  mixed 
morality,  or  that  which  may  be  applied  to  one's  own  advantage;' 
in  the  third, '  do  you  not  see  that  your  father  does  so  and  so  ?  '  in 
the  fourth, '  you  are  little,  and  this  is  only  fit  for  grown-up  peo- 
ple ; '  in  the  fifth,  '  the  chief  matter  is  that  you  should  succeed  in 
the  world,  and  become  something  iu  the  state ; '  in  the  sixth, '  not 
the  temporary,  but  the  eternal,  determines  the  worth  of  a  man;' 
in  the  seventh,  '  therefore  rather  suffer  injustice,  and  be  kind  ; ' 
in  the  eighth, '  but  defend  yourself  bravely  if  any  one  attack  you  ; ' 
in  the  ninth,  'do  not  make  a  noise,  dear  child; '  iu  the  tenth,  'a 
boy  must  not  sit  so  quiet;'  in  the  eleventh,  'you  must  obey  your 
parents  better;'  in  the  twelfth,  'and  educate  yourself.'  So  by 
the  hourly  change  of  his  principles,  the  father  conceals  their  un- 
tenableness  and  onesidedness.  As  for  his  wife,  she  is  neither  like 
him,  nor  yet  like  that  harlequin  who  came  on  to  the  stage  with  a 
inndle  of  papers  vmder  each  arm,  and  answered  to  the  inquiry, 
what,  he  had  under  his  right  arm,  'orders,'  and  to  what  lio  had 
under  his  left  arm, '  counter-orders.'  But  the  mother  might  be 
much  better  compared  to  a  giant  Briareus,  who  had  a  hundred 
arms,  and  a  bundle  of  papers  under  each." 

This  state  of  things  is  not  to  be  readily  changed. 
Generations  must  pass  before  any  great  amelioration 
of  it  can  be  expected.  Like  political  constitutions, 
educational  systems  are  not  made,  but  grow  ;  and 
within  brief  periods  growth  is  insensible.  Slow, 


MORAL  EDUCATION.  173 

however,  as  must  be  any  improvement,  even  that  im- 
provement implies  the  use  of  means;  and  among  the 
means  is  discussion. 

We  are  not  among  those  who  believe  in  Lord 
Palmerston's  dogma,  that  "all  children  are  born 
good."  On  the  whole,  the  opposite  dogma,  unten- 
able as  it  is,  seems  to  us  less  wide  of  the  truth.  Nor 
do  we  agree  with  those  who  think  that,  by  skilful 
discipline,  children  may  be  made  altogether  what 
they  should  be.  Contrariwise,  we  are  satisfied  that 
though  imperfections  of  nature  may  be  diminished  by 
wise  management,  they  cannot  be  removed  by  it. 
The  notion  that  an  ideal  humanity  might  be  forth- 
with  produced  by  a  perfect  system  of  education,  is 
aear  akin  to  that  shadowed  forth  in  the  poems  of 
Shelley,  that  would  mankind  give  up  their  old  in- 
stitutions, prejudices,  and  errors,  all  the  evils  in  the 
world  would  at  once  disappear :  neither  notion  being 
acceptable  to  such  as  have  dispassionately  studied 
human  affairs. 

Not  that  we  are  without  sympathy  with  those  who 

entertain  these  too  sanguine  hopes.     Enthusiasm, 

pushed  even  to  fanaticism,  is  a  useful  motive-power 

—perhaps  an  indispensable  one.     It  is  clear  that  the 

jdent  politician  would  never  undergo  the  labors  and 


I'M  EDUCATION. 

make  the  sacrifices  he  does,  did  he  not  believe  ths* 
the  reform  he  fights  for  is  the  one  thing  needful. 
But  for  his  conviction  that  drunkenness  is  the  root 
of  almost  all  social  evils,  the  teetotaller  would 
agitate  far  less  energetically.  In  philanthropy  as  hi 
other  things  great  advantage  results  from  division  of 
labor ;  and  that  there  may  be  division  of  labor,  each 
class  of  philanthropists  must  be  more  or  less  sub- 
ordinated to  its  function — must  have  an  exaggerated 
faith  in  its  work.  Hence,  of  those  who  regard  edu- 
cation, intellectual  or  moral,  as  the  panacea,  their 
undue  expectations  are  not  without  use ;  and  *hat 
perhaps  it  is  part  of  the  beneficent  order  of  things 
that  their  confidence  cannot  be  shaken. 

Even  were  it  true,  however,  that  by  some  possible 
system  of  moral  government  children  could  be 
moulded  into  the  desired  form ;  and  even  could 
every  parent  be  duly  indoctrinated  with  this sy stem ; 
we  should  still  be  far  from  achieving  the  object  in 
view.  It  is  forgotten  that  the  carrying  out  of  any 
such  system,  presupposes,  on  the  part  of  adults,  a 
degree  of  intelligence,  of  goodness,  of  self-control, 
possessed  by  no  one.  The  great  error  made  by  those 
who  discuss  questions  of  juvenile  discipline,  as  ii> 
ascribing  all  the  faults  and  difficulties  to  the  children, 
and  none  to  the  parents.  The  current  assumption 


MORAL  EDUCATION.  178 

tespecting  family  government,  as  respecting  nati&nal 
government,  ;.s,  that  the  virtues  are  with  the  rulers 
and  the  vices  with  the  ruled.  Judging  by  educa- 
tional theories,  men  and  women  are  entirely  trans- 
figured in  the  domestic  relation.  The  citizens  we  do 
business  with,  the  people  we  meet  in  the  world,  we 
all  know  to  be  very  imperfect  creatures.  In  the 
daily  scandals,  in  the  quarrels  of  friends,  in  bank- 
ruptcy disclosures,  in  lawsuits,  in  police  reports,  we 
have  constantly  thrust  before  us  the  pervading  sel- 
fishness, dishonesty,  brutality.  Yet  when  we  criti- 
cise nursery  management,  and  canvass  the  mis- 
behavior of  juveniles,  we  habitually  take  for  gran  ted 
that  these  culpable  men  and  women  are  free  from 
moral  delinquency  in  the  treatment  of  their  offspring  \ 
So  far  is  this  from  the  truth,  that  we  do  not  hesitate 
to  say  that  to  parental  misconduct  is  traceable 
a  great  part  of  the  domestic  disorder  commonly 
ascribed  to  the  perversity  of  children.  We  do  not 
assert  this  of  the  more  sympathetic  and  self-re- 
strained, among  whom  we  hope  most  of  our  readers 
may  be  classed,  but  we  assert  it  of  the  mass.  What 
kind  of  moral  discipline  is  to  be  expected  from  a 
mother  who,  time  after  time,  angrily  shakes  her  in- 
tant  because  it  will  not  suckle  her,  which  we  once 
saw  a  mother  do  ?  How  much  love  of  justice  and 


176  EDUCATION. 

generosity  is  likely  to  be  instilled  by  a  father  who, 
on  having  his  attention  drawn  by  his  child's  scream 
to  the  fact  that  its  finger  is  jammed  between  the 
window  sash  and  the  sill,  forthwith  begins  to  beat 
the  child  instead  of  releasing  it  ?  Yet  that  there  are 
such  fathers  is  testified  to  us  by  an  eye-witness.  Or, 
to  take  a  still  stronger  case,  also  vouched  foi  by 
direct  testimony — what  are  the  educational  prospects 
of  the  boy  who,  on  being  taken  home  with  a  dis 
located  thigh,  is  saluted  with  a  castigation  ?  It  is 
true  that  these  are  extreme  instances — instances  ex- 
hibiting in  human  beings  that  blind  instinct  which 
impels  brutes  to  destroy  the  weakly  and  injured  of 
their  own  race.  But  extreme  though  they  are,  they 
typify  feelings  and  conduct  daily  observable  in  many 
families.  Who  has  not  repeatedly  seen  a  child 
slapped  by  nurse  or  parent  for  a  fretful  ness  probably 
resulting  from  bodily  derangement?  Who,  when 
watching  a  mother  snatch  up  a  fallen  little  one,  has 
not  often  traced,  both  in  the  rough  manner  and  in 
the  sharply-uttered  exclamation — "  You  stupid  little 
thing  I*' — an  irascibility  foretelling  endless  future 
squabbles  ?  Is  there  not  in  the  harsh  tones  in  which 
a  father  bids  his  children  be  quiet,  evidence  of  a  de- 
ficient fellow-feeling  with  them  ?  Are  not  the  con- 
stant, and  often  quite  needless,  thwartings  that  the 


MORAL  EDUCATION.  177 

young  experience — the  injunctions  to  sit  still,  which 
in  active  child  cannot  obey  without  suffering  great 
nervous  irritation,  the  commands  not  to  look  out  of 
the  window  when  traveling  by  railway,  which  on  a 
child  of  any  intelligence  entails  serious  deprivation 
— are  not  these  thwartings,  we  ask,  signs  of  a  ter- 
rible lack  of  sympathy?  The  truth  is,  that  the 
difficulties  of  moral  education  are  necessarily  of  dual 
origin — necessarily  result  from  the  combined  faults 
of  parents  and  children.  If  hereditary  transmission 
is  a  law  of  nature,  as  every  naturalist  knows  it  to  be, 
and  as  our  daily  remarks  and  current  proverbs  admit 
it  to  be ;  then  on  the  average  of  cases,  the  defects  of 
children  mirror  the  defects  of  their  parents ; — on  the 
average  of  cases,  we  say,  because,  complicated  as  the 
results  are  by  the  transmitted  traits  of  remoter  an- 
cestors, the  correspondence  is  not  special  but  only 
general.  And  if,  on  the  average  of  cases,  this  in- 
heritance of  defects  exists,  then  the  evil  passions 
which  parents  have  to  check  in  their  children  imply 
L;ke  evil  passions  in  themselves ;  hidden,  it  may  be, 
from  the  public  eye ;  or  perhaps  obscured  by  other 
feelings  ;  but  still  there.  Evidently,  therefore,  the 
general  practice  of  any  ideal  system  of  discipline  is 
hopeless :  parents  are  not  good  enough. 
Moreover,  even  were  there  methods  by  which  the 
12 


178  EDUCATION. 

desired  end  could  be  at  once  effected,  and  even  had 
fathers  and  mothers  sufficient  insight,  sympathy ,  <md 
self-command  to  employ  these  methods  consistently, 
it  might  still  be  contended  that  it  would  be  ot  no 
use  to  reform  family  discipline  faster  than  other 
things  are  reformed.  What  is  it  that  we  aim  to  do  ? 
Is  it  not  that  education  of  whatever  kind  has  for  its 
proximate  end  to  prepare  a  child  for  the  busi- 
ness of  life — to  produce  a  citizen  who,  at  the  saint 
time  that  he  is  well  conducted,  is  also  able  to  make 
his  way  in  the  world  ?  And  does  not  making  his 
way  in  the  world  (by  which  we  mean,  not  the  ac- 
quirement of  wealth,  but  of  the  means  requisite  for 
properly  bringing  up  a  family) — does  not  this  imply 
a  certain  fitness  for  the  world  as  it  now  is  ?  And  if 
by  any  system  of  culture  an  ideal  human  being  could 
be  produced,  is  it  not  doubtful  whether  he  would  be 
fit  for  the  world  as  it  now  is  ?  May  we  not,  on  the 
contrary,  suspect  that  his  too  keen  sense  of  rectitude, 
and  too  elevated  standard  of  conduct,  would  make 
life  alike  intolerable  and  impossible  ?  And  however 
admirable  the  results  might  be,  considered  individ- 
ually, would  it  not  be  self-defeating  in  so  far  as  so- 
ciety and  posterity  are  concerned  ?  It  may,  we 
think,  be  argued  with  much  reason,  that  as  in  a  na- 
tion so  In  a  family,  the  kind  of  government  is,  on 


MORAL  EDUCATION.  179 

the  whole,  about  as  good  as  the  general  state  of  hu- 
man nature  permits  it  to  be.  It  may  be  said  that  in 
the  one  case,  as  in  the  other,  the  average  character 
of  the  people  determines  the  quality  of  the  control 
exercised.  It  may  be  inferred  that  in  both  cases 
amelioration  of  the  average  character  leads  to  ap 
an?  'lioration  of  system ;  and  further,  that  were  it 
possible  to  ameliorate  the  system  without  the  aver- 
age  character  being  first  ameliorated,  evil,  rather 
than  good,  would  follow.  It  may  be  urged  that  such 
degree  of  harshness  as  children  now  experience  from 
their  parents  and  teachers,  is  but  a  preparation  for 
that  greater  harshness  which  they  will  meet  with  on 
entering  the  world ;  and  that  were  it  possible  for 
parents  and  teachers  to  behave  toward  them  with 
perfect  equity  and  entire  sympathy,  it  would  but  in- 
tensify the  sufferings  which  the  selfishness  of  men 
must,  in  after  life,  inflict  on  them.* 

*This  is  the  plea  put  in  by  some  for  the  rough  treatment  ex- 
perienced by  boys  at  our  public  schools  ;  where,  as  it  is  said,  they 
are  introduced  to  a  miniature  world  whose  imperfections  and 
hardships  prepare  them  for  those  of  the  real  world  ;  and  it  must 
be  admitted  that  the  plea  has  some  force.  But  it  is  a  very  insuffi- 
cient plea.  For  whereas  domestic  and  school  discipline,  though 
they  should  not  be  very  much  better  than  the  discipline  of  adult 
life,  should  at  any  rate  be  somewhat  better;  the  discipline  whicb 
boys  meet  with  at  Eton,  Winchester,  Harrow,  etc.,  is  much  worse 
Miat  that  of  adult  life — much  more  unjust,  cruel,  brutal.  In* 
jtead  of  being  an  aid  to  human  progress,  which  all  culture  should 
be,  the  culture  of  our  public  schools,  by  accustoming  boys  t*  a 
despotic  form  of  government  and  aa  intercourse  regulated  by 


180 

'*  But  uoes  not  this  prove  too  mucn  i  some  one 
will  ask.  "If  no  system  of  moral  culture  can  forth- 
with make  children  altogether  what  they  should  be  ; 
if,  even  were  there  a  system  that  would  do  this,  ex- 
isting  parents  are  too  imperfect  to  carry  it  out;  and 
it  even  could  such  a  system  be  successfully  carried 
'out.,  its  results  would  be  disastrously  incongruous 
with  the  present  state  of  society ;  does  it  not  follow 
that  a  reform  in  the  system  now  in  use  is  neither 
practicable  nor  desirable  ?  "  No.  It  merely  follows 
that  reform  in  domestic  government  must  go  on, 
part  passu  with  other  reforms.  It  merely  follows 
that  methods  of  discipline  neither  can  be  nor  should 
be  ameliorated,  except  by  installments.  It  merely 
follows  that  the  dictates  of  abstract  rectitude  will, 
in  practice,  inevitably  be  subordinated  by  the  pres- 
ent state  of  human  nature— by  the  imperfections 
alike  of  children,  of  parents,  and  of  society  ;  and  can 
only  be  better  fulfilled  as  the  general  character  be- 
comes better. 

44  At  any  rate  then,"  may  rejoin  our  critic,  "  it  is 
clearly  useless  to  set  up  any  ideal  standard  of  family 
discipline.  There  can  be  no  advantage  in  elaborat 

brute  force,  tends  to  fit  them  for  a  lower  state  of  society  than  that 
which  exists.  And  chiefly  recruited  as  our  legislature  is  from 
among  those  who  ar«  brought  up  at  these  schools,  this  barbari* 
iug  influence  becomes  a  serious  hindrance  to  national  progress. 


MORAL  EDUCATION.  181 

ing  ana  recommending  methods  that  are  in  advance 
of  the  time."  Again  we  must  contend  for  the  con 
trary.  Just  as  in  the  case  of  political  government, 
though  pure  rectitude  may  be  at  present  impracti- 
cable, it  is  requisite  to  know  where  the  right  lies,  so 
that  the  changes  we  make  may  be  toward  the  right 
instead  of  away  from  it ;  so  in  the  case  of  domestic 
government,  an  ideal  must  be  upheld,  that  there 
may  be  gradual  approximations  to  it.  We  need  fear 
no  evil  consequences  from  the  maintenance  of  such 
an  ideal.  On  the  average  the  constitutional  conserv- 
atism of  mankind  is  always  strong  enough  to  pre- 
vent a  too  rapid  change.  So  admirable  are  the  ar- 
rangements of  things  that  until  men  have  grown  up 
to  the  level  of  a  higher  belief,  they  cannot  receive  it : 
nominally,  they  may  hold  it,  but  not  virtually.  And 
even  when  the  truth  gets  recognized,  the  obstacles 
to  conformity  with  it  are  so  persistent  as  to  outlive 
the  patience  of  philanthropists  and  even  philoso- 
phers. We  may  be  quite  sure,  therefore,  that  the 
many  difficulties  standing  in  the  way  of  a  normal 
government  of  children,  will  always  put  an  adequate 
sheck  upon  the  efforts  to  realize  it. 

With  these  preliminary  explanations,  let  us  go  on 
to  consider  the  true  aims  and  methods  of  moral  edu- 
cation— moral  education,  strictly  so  called,  we  mean  • 


18t  EDUCATION. 

for  we  do  not  propose  to  enter  upon  the  question  of 
religious  education  as  an  aid  to  the  education  exclu« 
lively  moral.  This  we  omit  as  a  topic  better  dealt 
with  separately.  After  a  few  pages  devoted  to  the 
settlement  of  general  principles,  during  the  perusal 
of  which  we  bespeak  the  reader's  patience,  we  shall 
aim  by  illustrations  to  make  clear  the  right  methods 
of  parental  behavior  in  the  hourly  occurring  difficult 
ties  of  family  government. 

When  a  child  falls,  or  runs  its  head  against  the 
table,  it  suffers  a  pain,  the  remembrance  of  which 
tends  to  make  it  more  careful  for  the  future ;  and 
by  an  occasional  repetition  of  like  experiences,  it  is 
eventually  disciplined  into  a  proper  guidance  of  its 
movements.  If  it  lays  hold  of  the  fire-bars,  thrusts 
its  finger  into  the  candle-flame,  or  spills  boiling  water 
on  any  part  of  its  skin,  the  resulting  burn  or  scald 
IB  a  lesson  not  easily  forgotten.  So  deep  an  impres- 
sion is  produced  by  one  or  two  such  events,  that 
afterward  no  persuasion  will  induce  it  again  to  dis- 
regard the  laws  of  its  constitution  in  these  ways. 

Now  in  these  and  like  cases,  Nature  illustrates  to 
us  in  the  simplest  way,  the  true  theory  and  practice 
of  moral  discipline — a  theory  and  practice  which, 
fcowever  much  they  may  seem  to  the  superficial  like 


MORAL  EDUCATION.  183 

those  commonly  received,  we  shall  find  on  exami- 
nation to  differ  from  them  very  widely. 

Observe,  in  the  first  place,  that  in  bodily  injuries 
and  their  penalties  we  have  misconduct  and  its  con- 
3equences  reduced  to  their  sin  plest  forms.  Though 
according  to  their  popular  acceptations,  right  and 
wrong  are  words  scarcely  applicable  to  actions  that 
have  none  but  direct  bodily  effects ;  yet  whoever 
considers  the  matter  will  see  that  such  actions  must 
be  as  much  classifiable  under  these  heads  as  any 
other  actions.  From  whatever  basis  they  start,  all 
theories  of  morality  agree  in  considering  that  con- 
duct whose  total  results,  immediate  and  remote,  are 
beneficial,  is  good  conduct ;  while  conduct  whose 
total  results,  immediate  and  remote,  are  injurious,  is 
bad  conduct.  The  happiness  or  misery  caused  by  it 
are  the  ultimate  standards  by  which  all  men  judge  of 
behavior.  We  consider  drunkenness  wrong  because 
^f  the  physical  degeneracy  and  accompanying  moral 
Uvils  entailed  on  the  transgressor  and  his  dependents. 
Did  theft  uniformly  give  pleasure  both  to  taker  and 
joser,  we  should  not  find  it  in  our  catalogue  of  sins. 
Were  it  conceivable  that  benevolent  actions  multi- 
plied human  pains,  we  should  condemn  them — should 
not  consider  tltem  benevolent.  It  needs  but  to  ~?ad 
the  first  newspaper  leader,  or  listen  to  any  conver- 


184  EDUCATION. 

sation  touching  social  affairs,  to  see  that  acts  of 
parliament,  political  movements,  philanthropic  agi- 
tations, in  common  with  the  doings  of  individuals, 
are  judged  by  their  anticipated  results  in  multiply- 
ing the  pleasures  or  pains  of  men.  And  if  on  look' 
ing  on  all  secondary  superinduced  ideas,  we  find 
these  to  be  our  ultimate  tests  of  right  and  wrong, 
we  cannot  refuse  to  class  purely  physical  actions  as 
right  or  wrong  according  to  the  beneficial  or  detri- 
mental results  they  produce. 

Note,  in  the  second  place,  the  character  of  the 
punishments  by  which  these  physical  transgressions 
are  prevented.  Punishments,  we  call  them,  in  the 
absence  of  a  better  word :  for  they  are  not  punish- 
ments in  the  literal  sense.  They  are  not  artificial 
and  unnecessary  inflictions  of  pain  ;  but  are  simply 
the  beneficent  checks  to  actions  that  are  essentially 
at  variance  with  bodily  welfare — checks  in  the  ab- 
sence of  which  life  would  quickly  be  destroyed  by 
bodily  injuries.  It  is  the  peculiarity  of  these  penal- 
ties, if  we  must  so  call  them,  that  they  are  nothing 
more  than  the  unavoidable  consequences  of  the  deeds 
which  they  follow :  they  are  nothing  more  than  the 
inevitable  reactions  entailed  by  the  child's  actions. 

Let  it  be  further  borne  in  mind  that  these  painful 
reactions  are  proportionate  to  the  degree  in  \\hioh 


MORAL  EDUCATION.  185 

the  organic  laws  have  been  transgressed.  A  slight 
accident  brings  a  slight  pain,  a  more  serious  one,  a 
greater  pain.  When  a  child  tumbles  over  the  door* 
step,  it  is  not  ordained  that  it  shall  suffer  in  excess 
of  the  amount  necessary,  with  the  view  of  making 
it  still  more  cautious  than  the  necessary  suffering 
will  make  it.  But  from  its  daily  experience  it  is  left 
to  learn  the  greater  or  less  penalties  of  greater  or 
less  errors  ;  and  to  behave  accordingly. 

And  then  mark,  lastly,  that  these  natural  re- 
actions which  follow  the  child's  wrong  actions,  are 
constant,  direct,  unhesitating,  and  not  to  be  escaped. 
No  threats  :  but  a  silent,  rigorous  performance.  If 
a  child  runs  a  pin  into  its  finger,  pain  follows.  If  it 
does  it  again,  there  is  again  the  same  result :  and  so 
on  perpetually.  In  all  its  dealings  with  surrounding 
inorganic  nature  it  finds  this  unswerving  persistence, 
which  listens  to  no  excuse,  and  from  which  there  is 
no  appeal ;  and  very  soon  recognizing  this  stern 
though  beneficent  discipline,  it  becomes  extremely 
careful  not  to  transgress. 

Still  more  significant  will  these  general  truths  ap- 
pear, when  we  remember  that  they  hold  throughout 
adult  life  as  well  as  throughout  infantine  life.  It  is 
by  an  experimentally-gained  knowledge  of  the 
natural  consequences,  that  men  and  women  ar& 


186  EDUCATION. 

checked  when  they  go  wrong.  After  home  educa- 
tion has  ceased,  and  when  there  are  no  longer  parenti 
and  teachers  to  forbid  this  or  that  kind  of  conduct, 
there  comes  into  play  a  discipline  like  that  by  which 
the  young  child  is  taught  its  first  lessons  in  self- 
guidance.  If  the  youth  entering  upon  the  business 
of  life  idles  away  his  time  and  fulfils  slowly  or  un- 
skilfully the  duties  entrusted  to  him,  there  by  and 
by  follows  the  natural  penalty:  he  is  discharged,  and 
left  to  suffer  for  awhile  the  evils  of  relative  poverty. 
On  the  unpunctual  man,  failing  alike  his  appoint- 
ments of  business  and  pleasure,  there  continually 
fall  the  consequent  inconveniences,  losses,  and 
deprivations.  The  avaricious  tradesman  who  charges 
too  high  a  rate  of  profit,  loses  his  customers,  and  so 
is  checked  in  his  greediness.  Diminishing  practice 
teaches  the  inattentive  doctor  to  bestow  more  trouble 
on  his  patients.  The  too  credulous  creditor  and  the 
over-sanguine  speculator  alike  learn  by  the  difficul- 
ties which  rashness  entails  on  them,  the  necessity  of 
being  more  cautious  in  their  engagements.  And  so 
throughout  the  life  of  every  citizen.  In  the  quota- 
tion so  often  made  d  propos  of  these  cases — "  The 
burnt  child  dreads  the  fire" — we  see  not  only  that 
the  analogy  between  this  social  discipline  and 
Nature's  early  discipline  of  infants  is  universally 


MORAL  EDUCATION.  18? 

recognized ;  but  we  also  see  an  implied  conviction 
that  this  discipline  is  cf  the  most  efficient  kind. 
Nay  more,  this  conviction  is  not  only  implied,  but 
distinctly  stated.  Every  one  has  heard  others  con- 
fess that  only  by  "  dearly  bought  experience  "  had 
they  been  induced  to  give  up  some  bad  or  fool 
ish  course  of  conduct  formerly  pursued.  Every 
one  has  heard,  in  the  criticisms  passed  on  the 
doings  of  this  spendthrift  or  the  other  specu- 
lator, the  remark  that  advice  was  useless,  and 
that  nothing  but  "  bitter  experience  "  would  produce 
any  effect :  nothing,  that  is,  but  suffering  the  una- 
voidable consequences.  And  if  further  proof  be 
needed  that  the  penalty  of  the  natural  reaction  is 
not  only  the  most  efficient,  but  that  no  humanly- 
devised  penalty  can  replace  it,  we  have  such  further 
proof  in  the  notorious  ill-success  of  our  various  penal 
systems.  Out  of  the  many  methods  of  criminal  dis- 
cipline that  have  been  proposed  and  legally  en- 
forced, none  have  answered  the  expectations  of 
their  advocates.  Not  only  have  artificial  punish- 
ments failed  to  produce  reformation,  but  they  have 
in  many  cases  increased  the  criminality.  The  only 
successful  reformatories  are  l.iose  privately-estab- 
lished ones  which  have  approximated  their  regime  to 
the  method  of  Natuia— which  have  done  little  more 


188  EDUCATION. 

than  administer  the  natural  consequences  of  en.  nai 
conduct :  the  natural  consequences  being,  that  by 
imprisonment  or  other  restraint,  the  criminal  shall 
have  his  liberty  of  action  diminished  as  much  as  is 
needful  for  the  safety  of  society ;  and  that  he  shall 
be  made  to  maintain  himself  while  living  under  this 
restraint.  Thus  we  see  not  only  that  the  discipline 
by  which  the  young  child  is  so  successfully  taught 
to  regulate  its  movements  is  also  the  discipline  by 
which  the  great  mass  of  adults  are  kept  in  order, 
and  more  or  less  improved ;  but  that  the  discipline 
humanly-devised  for  the  worst  adults,  fails  when  it 
diverges  from  this  divinely-ordained  discipline,  and 
begins  to  succeed  when  it  approximates  to  it. 

Have  we  not  here,  then,  the  guiding  principle  of 
moral  education  ?  Must  we  not  infer  that  the 
system  so  beneficent  in  its  effects,  alike  during  in- 
fancy and  maturity,  will  be  equally  beneficent 
throughout  youth?  Can  any  one  believe  that  the 
method  which  answers  so  well  in  the  first  and  the 
last  divisions  of  life  will  not  answer  in  the  interme 
diate  division  ?  Is  it  not  manifest  that  as  "  ministers 
and  interpreters  of  Nature "  it  is  the  function  of 
parents  to  see  that  their  children  habitually  experi* 
enoe  the  true  conseauences  of  their  conduct — the 


MORAL  EDUCATION.  189 

natural  reactions:  neither  warding  them  off,  noi 
intensifying  them,  nor  putting  artificial  consequences 
in  place  of  them?  No  unprejudiced  reader  wil 
hesitate  in  his  assent. 

Probably,  however,  not  a  few  will  contend  that 
already  most  parents  do  this — that  the  punishments 
they  inflict  are,  in  the  majority  of  cases,  the  true 
consequences  of  ill-conduct — that  parental  anger, 
venting  itself  in  harsh  words  and  deeds,  is  the  result 
of  a  child's  transgression — and  that,  in  the  suffering, 
physical  or  moral,  which  the  child  is  subject  to,  it 
experiences  the  natural  reaction  of  its  misbehavior. 
Along  with  much  error  this  assertion,  doubtless, 
contains  some  truth.  It  is  unquestionable  that  the 
displeasure  of  fathers  and  mothers  is  a  true  conse- 
quence of  juvenile  delinquency ;  and  that  the  mani- 
festation of  it  is  a  normal  check  upon  such  delin 
quency.  It  is  unquestionable  that  the  scoldings, 
and  threats,  and  blows,  which  a  passionate  parent 
risits  on  offending  little  ones,  are  effects  actually 
produced  in  such  a  parent  by  their  offences ;  and  so 
are,  in  some  sort,  to  be  considered  as  among  the 
natural  reactions  of  their  wrong  actions.  And  we 
are  by  no  means  prepared  to  say  that  these  modes 
of  treatment  are  not  relatively  right — right,  that  is 
la  relation  to  the  uncontrollable  children  of  ill' 


Iff  EDUCATION. 

controlled  adults :  and  right  in  relation  to  a  state 
»>f  society  in  which  such  ill-controlled  adults  make 
ap  the  mass  of  the  people.  As  already  suggested, 
educational  systems,  like  political  and  other  institu- 
tions, are  generally  as  good  as  the  sta~e  of  human 
nature  permits.  The  barbarous  children  of  barbar- 
ous parents  are  probably  only  to  be  restrained  by 
the  barbarous  methods  which  such  parents  sponta- 
neously employ ;  while  submission  to  these  barbar- 
ous methods  is  perhaps  the  best  preparation  such 
children  can  have  for  the  barbarous  society  in  which 
they  are  presently  to  play  a  part.  Conversely,  the 
civilized  members  of  a  civilized  society  will  sponta- 
neously manifest  their  displeasure  in  less  violent 
ways — will  spontaneously  use  milder  measures: 
measures  strong  enough  for  their  better  natured 
children.  Thus  it  is  doubtless  true  that,  in  so  far 
as  the  expression  of  parental  feeling  is  concerned, 
the  principle  of  the  natural  reaction  is  always  more 
or  less  followed.  The  system  of  domestic  govern- 
ment ever  giavitates  toward  its  right  form. 

But  now  observe  two  important  facts.  In  the 
Srst  place,  observe  that,  in  states  of  rapid  transition 
iike  ours,  which  witness  a  long-drawn  battle  betweea 
old  and  new  theories  and  old  and  new  practices,  th* 
•ducational  methods  in  use  are  apt  to  be  consider 


MORAL  EDUCATION.  191 

al)Iy  out  of  harmony  with  the  times.  In  deference 
to  dogmas  fit  only  for  the  ages  that  uttered  them, 
many  parents  inflict  punishments  that  do  violence  to 
their  own  feelings,  and  so  visit  on  their  children 
unnatural  reactions ;  while  other  parents,  enthusi* 
astic  in  their  hopes  of  immediate  perfection,  rush  to 
the  opposite  extreme.  And  then  observe,  in  tb* 
second  place,  that  the  discipline  on  which  we  ar« 
insisting  is  not  so  much  the  experience  of  parental 
approbation,  or  disapprobation,  which,  in  most  caser 
is  only  a  secondary  consequence  of  a  child's  con 
duct ;  but  it  is  the  experience  of  those  results  which 
would  naturally  flow  from  the  conduct  in  the 
absence  of  parental  opinion  or  interference.  Tho 
truly  instructive  and  salutary  consequences  are  not 
those  inflicted  by  parents  when  they  take  upon 
themselves  to  be  Nature's  proxies;  but  they  are 
those  inflicted  by  Nature  herself.  We  will  endeavor 
to  make  this  distinction  clear  by  a  few  illustrations, 
which,  while  they  show  what  we  mean  by  natur 
reactions  as  contrasted  with  artificial  ones,  wi  „ 
afford  some  directly  practical  suggestions. 

In  every  family  where  there  are  young  children 
there  almost  daily  occur  cases  of  what  mothers  and 
servants  call  "making  a  litter."  A  child  has  had 
its  box  of  toys,  and  leaves  them  scattered  aboot 


193  EDUCATION. 

the  floor.  Or  a  handful  of  flowers,  brought  in  from 
a  morning  walk,  is  presently  seen  dispersed  over 
tables  and  chairs.  Or  a  little  girl,  making  doll's- 
clothes,  disfigures  the  room  with  shreds.  In  most 
cases  the  trouble  of  rectifying  this  disorder  falls  any- 
where but  in  the  right  place:  if  in  the  nursery,  the 
nurse  herself,  with  many  grumblings  about  "  tire- 
some little  things,"  etc.,  undertakes  the  task;  if  be 
low  stairs,  the  task  usually  devolves  either  on  one  of 
the  elder  children  or  on  the  nouse-maid;  the  trans 
gressor  being  visited  with  nothing  more  than  a  scold- 
ing. In  this  very  simple  case,  however,  there  are 
many  parents  wise  enough  to  follow  out,  more  or  les» 
consistently,  the  normal  course — that  of  making  the 
child  itself  collect  the  toys  or  shreds.  The  labor  of 
putting  things  in  order  is  the  true  consequence  of 
having  put  them  in  disorder.  Every  trader  in  his 
office,  every  wife  in  her  household,  has  daily  exper- 
ience of  this  fact.  And  if  education  be  a  prepara- 
tion for  the  business  of  life,  then  every  child  should 
also,  from  the  beginning,  have  daily  experience  of 
this  fact.  If  the  natural  penalty  be  met  by  any  re- 
fractory  behavior  (which  it  may  perhaps  be  whert 
the  general  system  of  moral  discipline  previously 
pursued  has  been  bad),  then  the  proper  course  is  ta 
let  the  child  feel  the  ulterior  reaction  consequent  on 


MORAL  EDUCATION.  198 

its  disobedience.  Having  refused  or  neglected  to 
pick  up  and  put  away  the  things  it  has  scattered 
about,  and  having  thereby  entailed  the  trouble  of 
doing  this  on  some  one  else,  the  child  should,  on 
subsequent  occasions,  be  denied  the  means  of  giving 
this  trouble.  When  next  it  petitions  for  its  toy -box, 
the  reply  of  its  mamma  should  be — "  The  last  time 
you  had  your  toys  you  left  them  lying  on  the  floor, 
and  Jane  had  to  pick  them  up.  Jane  is  too  busy  to 
pick  up  every  day  the  things  you  leave  about ;  and  I 
cannot  do  it  myself.  So  that,  as  you  will  not  put 
away  your  toys  when  you  have  done  with  them,  I 
cannot  let  you  have  them."  This  is  obviously  a  nat- 
ural consequence,  neither  increased  nor  lessened} 
and  must  be  so  recognized  by  a  child.  The  penalty 
comes,  too,  at  the  moment  when  it  is  most  keenly 
felt.  A  new-bore  desire  is  balked  at  the  moment  of 
anticipated  gratification  ;  and  the  strong  impression 
so  produced  can  scarcely  fail  to  have  an  effect  on  the 
fature  conduct;  an  effect  which,  by  consistent  repe 
ti  ,1'jii,  will  do  whatever  can  be  done  in  curing  the 
fault.  Add  to  which,  that,  by  this  method,  a  child  is 
early  taught  the  lesson  which  cannot  be  learnt  too 
soon,  that  in  this  world  of  ours  pleasures  are  rightly 
to  be  obtained  only  by  labor. 

Take  another  case.     Not  long  since  we  had 


19*  EDUCATION. 

quently  to  listen  to  the  reprimands  visited  on  a  little 
girl  who  was  scarcely  ever  ready  in  time  for  the  daily 
walk.  Of  eager  disposition,  and  apt  to  become 
thoroughly  absorbed  in  the  occupation  of  the  moment, 
Constance  never  thought  of  putting  on  her  things 
until  the  rest  were  ready.  The  governess  and  the 
other  children  had  almost  invariably  to  wait ;  and 
from  the  mamma  there  almost  invariably  came  the 
same  scolding.  Utterly  as  this  system  failed  it  never 
occurred  to  the  mamma  to  let  Constance  experience 
the  natural  penalty.  Nor,  indeed,  would  she  try  it 
when  it  was  suggested  to  her.  In  the  world  the 
penalty  of  being  behind  time  is  the  loss  of  some  ad- 
vantage that  would  else  have  been  gained :  the  train 
is  gone ;  or  the  steamboat  is  just  leaving  its  moor- 
ings ;  or  the  best  things  in  the  market  are  sold ;  or 
all  the  good  seats  in  the  concert-room  are  filled. 
And  every  one,  in  cases  perpetually  occurring,  may 
see  that  it  is  the  prospective  deprivations  entailed 
by  being  too  late  which  prevent  people  from  being 
too  late.  Is  not  the  inference  obvious  ?  Should  not 
these  prospective  deprivations  control  the  child's 
conduct  also  ?  If  Constance  is  not  ready  at  the  ap- 
pointed time,  the  natural  result  is  that  of  being  left 
behind,  and  losing  her  walk.  And  no  one  can,  we 
t&ink,  doubt  that  after  having  once  or  twice  remained 


MORAL  EDUCATION.  195 

at  home  while  thg  rest  were  enjoying  themselves  in 
the  fields,  and  after  having  felt  that  this  loss  of  a 
much-prized  gratification  was  solely  due  to  want  of 
promptitude,  some  amendment  would  take  place. 
At  any  rate,  the  measure  would  be  more  effective 
than  that  perpetual  scolding  which  ends  only  in  pro- 
ducing callousness. 

Again,  when  children,  with  more  than  usual  care- 
lessness, break  or  lose  the  things  given  to  them,  the 
natural  penalty — the  penalty  which  makes  grown-up 
persons  more  careful — is  the  consequent  inconven« 
ience.  The  want  of  the  lost  or  damaged  article,  and 
the  cost  of  supplying  its  place,  are  the  experiences 
by  which  men  and  women  are  disciplined  in 
these  matters ;  and  the  experience  of  children  should 
be  as  much  as  possible  assimilated  to  theirs.  We  do 
not  refer  to  that  early  period  at  which  toys  are 
pulled  to  pieces  in  the  process  of  learning  their  phy- 
sical properties,  and  at  which  the  results  of  careless- 
ness cannot  be  understood ;  but  to  a  later  period, 
when  the  meaning  and  advantages  of  property  are 
perceived.  When  a  boy,  old  enough  to  possess  a 
penknife,  uses  it  so  roughly  as  to  snap  the  blade,  or 
leaves  it  in  the  grass  by  some  hedge-side,  whe;  e  he 
was  cutting  a  stick,  a  thoughtless  parent,  or  some  in- 
dulgent relative,  will  commonly  forthwith  buy  bin 


196  EDUCATION. 

another ;  not  seeing  that,  by  doing  this,  a  valuable 
lesson  is  lost.  In  such  a  case,  a  father  may  properly 
explain  that  penknives  cost  money,  and  that  to  get 
money  requires  labor ;  that  he  cannot  afford  to  pur- 
chase new  penknives  for  one  who  loses  or  breaks 
them  ;  and  that  until  he  sees  evidence  of  greater 
carefulness  he  must  decline  to  make  good  the  loss, 
A  parallel  discipline  may  be  used  as  a  means  oi 
checking  extravagance. 

These  few  familiar  instances,  here  chosen  because 
of  the  simplicity  with  which  they  illustrate  our  point, 
will  make  clear  to  every  one  the  distinction  between 
those  natural  penalties  which  we  contend  are  the 
truly  efficient  ones,  and  those  artificial  penalties 
which  parents  commonly  substitute  for  them.  Be- 
fore going  on  to  exhibit  the  higher  and  subtler  ap- 
plications of  this  principle,  let  us  note  its  many  and 
great  superiorities  over  the  principle,  or  rather  the 
empirical  practice,  which  prevails  in  most  families. 

In  the  first  place,  right  conceptions  of  cause  and 
effect  are  early  formed ;  and  by  frequent  and  con- 
sistent experience  are  eventually  rendered  definite 
and  complete.  Proper  conduct  in  life  is  much  bet- 
ter guaranteed  when  the  good  and  evil  consequences 
of  actions  are  rationally  understood,  than  when  they 
ire  merely  believed  on  authority.  A  child  who  finds 


MORAL  EDUCATION.  MT» 

that  diaorderliness  entails  the  subsequent  trouble  of 
putting  things  in  order,  or  who  misses  a  gratification 
from  dilatoriness,  or  whose  want  of  care  is  followed 
by  the  loss  or  breakage  of  some  much-prized  posses- 
sion, not  only  experiences  a  keenly-felt  consequence, 
but  gains  a  knowledge  of  causation :  both  the  one 
and  the  other  being  just  like  those  which  adult  life 
will  bring.  Whereas  a  child  who  in  such  cases  re- 
ceives some  reprimand  or  some  factitious  penalty, 
not  only  experiences  a  consequence  for  which  it  often 
cares  very  little,  but  lacks  that  instruction  respect- 
ing the  essential  natures  of  good  and  evil  conduct, 
which  it  would  else  have  gathered.  It  is  a  vice  of 
the  common  system  of  artificial  rewards  and  punish- 
ments, long  since  noticed  by  the  clear-sighted,  that 
by  substituting  for  the  natural  results  of  misbehavior 
certain  threatened  tasks  or  castigations,  it  produces 
a  radically  wrong  standard  of  moral  guidance.  Hay- 
ing throughout  infancy  and  boyhood  always  regarded 
parental  or  tutorial  displeasure  as  the  result  of  a  for- 
bidden action,  the  youth  has  gained  an  established 
association  of  ideas  between  such  action  and  such 
displeasure,  as  cause  and  effect ;  and  consequently 
when  parents  and  tutors  have  abdicated,  and  their 
displeasure  is  not  to  be  feared,  the  restraint  on  a  for* 
bidden  action  is  in  great  measure  removed :  the  true 


196  EDUCATION 

restraints,  the  natural  reactions,  having  yet  to  bt 
learned  by  sad  experience.  As  writes  one  who  h&F 
had  personal  knowledge  of  this  short-sighted  system  , 
•**. **  Young  men  let  loose  from  school,  particularly 
those  whose  parents  have  neglected  to  exert  their  in- 
fluence,  plunge  into  every  description  of  extrava- 
gance ;  they  know  no  rule  of  action — they  are  ignor* 
ant  of  the  reasons  for  moral  conduct — they  have 
no  foundation  to  rest  upon — and  until  they  have 
been  severely  disciplined  by  the  world  are  extremely 
dangerous  members  of  society." 

Another  great  ad  vantage  of  this  natural  system  of 
discipline  is,  that  it  is  a  system  of  pure  justice ;  and 
will  be  recognized  by  every  child  as  such.  Whoso 
suffers  nothing  more  than  the  evil  which  obviously 
follows  naturally  from  his  own  misbehavior,  is  much 
less  likely  to  think  himself  wrongly  treated  than  if 
he  suffers  an  evil  artificially  inflicted  on  him ;  and 
this  will  be  true  of  children  as  of  men.  Take  the 
Case  of  a  boy  who  is  habitually  reckless  of  his  clothes 
scrambles  through  hedges  without  caution,  or  is  ut- 
terly regardless  of  mud.  If  he  is  beaten,  or  sent  to 
bed,  he  is  apt  to  regard  himself  as  ill-used  ;  and  hii 
mind  is  more  likely  to  be  occupied  by  thinking  over 
his  injuries  than  repenting  of  his  transgressions. 
But  suppose  be  is  reouir«<l  to  rectify  as  far  as  he 


MORAL  EDUCATION.  199 

the  harm  he  has  done — to  clean  off  the  mud  with 
which  he  has  covered  himself,  or  to  mend  the  tear  as 
wrell  as  he  can.  Will  he  not  feel  that  the  evil  is  one 
•f  his  own  producing?  Will  he  not  while  paying 
this  penalty  be  continuously  conscious  of  the  connec- 
tion between  it  and  its  cause  ?  And  will  he  not, 
spite  his  irritation,  recognize  more  or  less  clearly  the 
justice  of  the  arrangement?  If  several  lessons  of 
this  kind  fail  to  produce  amendment — if  suits  of 
clothes  are  prematurely  spoiled — if  pursuing  this 
same  system  of  discipline  a  father  declines  to  spend 
money  for  new  ones  until  the  ordinary  time  has 
elapsed — and  if,  meanwhile,  there  occur  occasions  on 
which,  having  no  decent  clothes  to  go  in,  the  boy  is 
debarred  from  joining  the  rest  of  the  family  on  holi- 
day excursions  and  fete  days,  it  is  manifest  that 
while  he  will  keenly  feel  the  punishment,  he  can 
scarcely  fail  to  trace  the  chain  of  causation,  and  to 
Oerceive  that  his  own  carelessness  is  the  origin  of  it ; 
tnd  seeing  this,  he  will  not  have  that  same  sense  of 
injustice  as  when  there  is  no  obvious  connection  be- 
tween the  transgression  and  its  penalty. 

Again,  the  tempers  both  of  parents  and  children 
are  much  less  liable  to  be  ruffled  under  this  system 
than  under  the  ordinary  sj'stem.  Instead  of  letting 
experience  the  oainful  results  which  uatuj> 


200  EDUCATION. 

ally  follow  from  wrong  conduct,  the  usual  course  pur- 
sued by  parents  is  to  inflict  themselves  certain  other 
painful  results.  A  double  mischief  arises  from  this. 
Making,  as  they  do,  multiplied  family  laws;  and 
identifying  their  own  supremacy  and  dignity  with 
the  maintenance  of  these  laws;  it  happens  that  every 
transgression  comes  to  be  regarded  as  an  offence 
against  themselves,  and  a  cause  of  anger  on  their 
part.  Add  to  which  the  further  irritations  which 
result  from  taking  upon  themselves,  in  the  shape  of 
extra  labor  or  cost,  those  evil  consequences  which 
should  have  been  allowed  to  fall  on  wrong-doers. 
Similarly  with  the  children.  Penalties  which  the 
necessary  reaction  of  things  brings  round  upon  them 
• — penalties  which  are  inflicted  by  impersonal  agency, 
produce  an  irritation  that  is  comparatively  slight  and 
transient;  whereas,  penalties  which  are  voluntarily 
iaflicted  by  a  parent,  and  are  afterward  remembered 
as  caused  by  him  or  her,  produce  an  irritation  both 
greater  and  more  continued.  Just  consider  how  dis- 
astrous would  be  the  result  if  this  empirical  method 
were  pursued  from  the  beginning.  Suppose  it  were 
possible  for  parents  to  take  upon  themselves  the 
physical  sufferings  entailed  on  their  children  by  ig- 
norance and  awkwardness;  and  that  while  bearing 
these  evil  consequences  thev  visited  on  their  children 


MORAL  EDUCATION.  201 

eeicain  other  evil  consequences,  with  the  view  of 
teaching  them  the  impropriety  of  their  conduct. 
Suppose  that  when  a  child,  who  had  been  forbidden 
to  meddle  with  the  kettle,  spilt  some  boiling  water 
OR  its  foot,  the  mother  vicariously  assumed  the  scald 
and  gave  a  blow  in  place  of  it ;  and  similarly  in  all 
other  cases.  Would  not  the  daily  mishaps  be  sources 
of  far  more  anger  than  now?  Would  not  there  be 
nhronie  ill-temper  on  both  sides?  Yet  an  exactly 
parallel  policy  is  pursued  in  after  years.  A  father 
who  punishes  his  boy  for  carelessly  or  wilfully  break- 
ing a  sister's  toy,  and  then  himself  pays  for  a  new 
toy,  does  substantially  this  same  thing — inflicts  an 
irtificial  penalty  on  the  transgressor,  and  takes  the 
natural  penalty  on  himself:  his  own  feelings  and 
those  of  the  transgressor  being  alike  needlessly  irri- 
tated. If  he  simply  required  restitution  to  be  made, 
he  would  produce  far  less  heartburning.  If  he  told 
the  boy  that  a  new  toy  must  be  bought  at  his,  the 
froy's  cost,  and  that  his  supply  of  pocket-money  must 
Ire  withheld  to  the  needful  extent,  there  would  be 
much  less  cause  for  ebullition  of  temper  on  either 
Aide ;  while  in  the  deprivation  afterward  felt,  the  boy 
would  experience  the  equitable  and  salutary  conse- 
quence. In  brief,  the  system  of  discipline  by  natural 
reactions  is  less  injurious  tP  texooet^  alike  because  it 


aoa  EDUCATION. 

is  perceived  on  both  sides  to  be  nothing  more  thai 
pure  justice,  and  because  it  more  or  less  substitutes 
ihe  impersonal  agency  of  nature  for  the  personal 
agency  of  parents. 

Whence  also  follows  the  manifest  corollary,  that 
under  this  system  the  parental  and  filial  relation  will 
be  a  more  friendly,  and  therefore  a  more  influential 
one.  Whether  in  parent  or  child,  anger,  however 
caused,  and  to  whomsoever  directed,  is  more  or  less 
detrimental.  But  anger  in  a  parent  toward  a  child, 
and  in  a  child  toward  a  parent,  is  especially  detri- 
mental ;  because  it  weakens  that  bond  of  sympathy 
which  is  essential  to  a  beneficent  control.  In  virtue 
of  the  general  law  of  association  of  ideas,  it  inevita- 
bly results,  both  in  young  and  old,  that  dislike  is 
contracted  toward  things  which  in  our  experience 
are  habitually  connected  with  disagreeable  feelings 
Or  where  attachment  originally  existed,  it  is  weak 
ened,  or  destroyed,  or  turned  into  repugnance,  ac 
cording  to  the  quantity  of  painful  impressions  re- 
:eived.  Parental  wrath,  with  its  accompanying  rep* 
rimands  and  castigations,  cannot  fail,  if  often  re- 
peated, to  produce  filial  alienation ;  while  the  re- 
sentment and  sulkiness  of  children  cannot  fail  to 
weaken  the  affection  felt  for  them,  and  may  even 
in  (lest T<>\ •")<»•  it.  Hence  tjie  numerous  cases  i* 


MORAL  EDUCATION.  203 

vrhicb  parents  (and  especially  fathers,  who  are 
commonly  deputed  to  express  the  anger  and  inflict 
the  punishment)  are  regarded  with  indifference,  if 
not  with  aversion ;  and  hence  the  equally  numerous 
cases  in  which  children  are  looked  upon  as  inflictions. 
Seeing,  then,  as  all  must  do,  that  estrangement  of 
this  kind  is  fatal  to  a  salutary  moral  culture,  it  fol- 
lows that  parents  cannot  be  too  solicitous  in  avoiding 
occasions  of  direct  antagonism  with  their  children- 
occasions  of  personal  resentment.  And  therefore 
they  cannot  too  anxiously  avail  themselves  of  this 
discipline  of  natural  consequences — this  system  of 
letting  the  penalty  be  inflicted  by  the  laws  of  things; 
which,  by  saving  the  parent  from  the  function  of  a 
penal  agent,  prevents  these  mutual  exasperations 
and  estrangements. 

Thus  we  see  that  this  method  of  moral  culture  by 
3Xperience  of  the  normal  reactions  which  is  the 
divinely-ordained  method  alike  for  infancy  and  for 
adult  life,  is  equally  applicable  during  the  interme- 
diate childhood  and  youth.  And  among  the  advant- 
ages of  this  method  we  see — First.  That  it  gives 
that  rational  comprehension  of  right  and  wrong 
conduct  which  results  from  actual  experience  of  the 
good  and  bad  consequences  caused  by  them.  Second, 
the  child,  suffering  nothing  more  than  the 


J»4  EDUCATION. 

painful  effects  brought  upon  it  by  its  own  wrong 
actions,  must  recognize  more  or  less  clearly  the  jus- 
tice of  the  penalties.  Third.  That,  recognizing  iht 
justice  of  the  penal  ties,  and  receiving  those  penalties 
through  the  working  of  things,  rather  than  at  the 
hands  of  an  individual,  its  temper  will  be  less  dis- 
turbed; while  the  parent  occupying  the  compara 
tively  passive  position  of  taking  care  that  the  natural 
penalties  are  felt,  will  preserve  a  comparative  equa- 
nimity. And  Fourth.  That  mutual  exasperation 
being  thus  in  great  measure  prevented,  a  much  hap- 
pier, and  a  more  influential  state  of  feeling,  will 
exist  between  parent  and  child. 

44  But  what  is  to  be  done  with  more  serious  mis- 
conduct ?  "  some  will  ask.  "  How  is  this  plan  to  be 
carried  out  when  a  petty  theft  has  been  committed? 
or  when  a  lie  has  been  told  ?  or  when  some  younger 
brother  or  sister  has  been  ill-used  ?  " 

Before  replying  to  these  questions,  let  us  consider 
the  bearings  of  a  few  illustrative  facts. 

Living  in  the  family  of  his  brother-in-law,  a 
friend  of  ours  had  undertaken  the  education  of  his 
little  nephew  and  niece.  This  he  had  conducted, 
more  perhaps  from  natural  sympathy  than  from  rea- 
soned-out  conclusions,  in  the  flfttrit  of  the  method 


MORAL  EDUCATION.  208 

above  set  forth.  The  two  children  were  in  doom 
his  pupils  and  out  of  doors  his  companions.  They 
daily  joined  him  in  walks  and  botanizing  excuF, 
sions,  eagerly  sought  out  plants  for  him,  looked  on 
while  he  examined  and  identified  them,  and  in  this 
and  other  ways  were  ever  gaining  both  pleasure  and 
instruction  in  his  society.  In  short,  morally  con-, 
sidered,  he  stood  to  them  much  more  in  the  posi- 
tion of  parent  than  either  their  father  or  mother  did. 
Describing  to  us  the  results  of  this  policy,  he  gave, 
among  other  instances,  the  following.  One  even- 
ing, having  need  for  some  article  lying  in  another 
part  of  the  house,  he  asked  his  nephew  to  fetch  it 
for  him.  Deeply  interested  as  the  boy  was  in  some 
amusement  of  the  moment,  he,  contrary  to  his 
wont,  either  exhibited  great  reluctance  or  refused, 
we  forget  which.  His  uncle,  disapproving  of  a  co* 
ercive  course,  fetched  it  himself;  merely  exhibiting 
by  his  manner  the  annoyance  this  ill-behavior  gave 
him.  And  when,  later  in  the  evening,  the  boy  made 
orertures  for  the  usual  play,  they  were  gravely  re- 
pelled— the  uncle  manifested  just  that  coldness  of 
feeling  naturally  produced  in  him,  and  so  let  the  boy 
experience  the  necessary  consequences  of  his  con- 
duct. Next  morning  at  the  usual  time  for  rising^ 
our  friend  heard  a  new  voice  outside  the  door,  and 


806  EDUCATION. 

in  walked  his  little  nephew  with  the  hot  water ,  and 
then  the  boy,  peering  about  the  room  to  see  what  else 
could  be  done,  exclaimed,  "Oh!  you  want  your 
boots,"  and  forthwith  rushed  down  stairs  to  fetch 
them.  In  this  and  other  ways  he  showed  a  true 
penitence  for  his  misconduct ;  he  endeavored  by  un 
usual  services  to  make  up  for  the  service  he  had  re» 
fused ;  his  higher  feelings  had  of  themselves  con» 
quered  his  lower  ones,  and  acquired  strength  by  the 
conquest;  and  he  valued  more  than  before  the 
friendship  he  thus  regained. 

This  gentleman  is  now  himself  a  father ;  acts  on 
the  same  system ;  and  finds  it  answer  completely. 
He  makes  himself  thoroughly  his  children's  friend. 
The  evening  is  longed  for  by  them  because  he  will 
be  at  home ;  and  they  especially  enjoy  the  Sunday 
because  he  is  with  them  all  day.  Thus  possessing 
their  perfect  confidence  and  affection,  he  finds  that 
the  simple  display  of  his  approbation  or  disapproba- 
tion gives  him  abundant  power  of  control.  If,  on  his 
return  home,  he  hears  that  one  of  his  boys  has  been 
naughty,  he  behaves  toward  him  with  that  compara- 
tive coldness  which  the  consciousness  of  the  boy's 
misconduct  naturally  produces ;  and  he  finds  this  a 
most  efficient  punishment.  The  mere  withholding  of 
the  usual  caresses,  is  •>  source  of  the  keenest  diatrest 


MORAL  EDUCATION.  203 

—produces  a  much  mere  prolonged  fit  01  crying  than 
a  beating  would  do.  And  the  dread  of  this  purely 
moral  penalty  is,  he  says,  ever  present  during  his 
absence  :  so  much  so,  that  frequently  during  the  day 
his  children  inquire  of  their  mamma  how  they  have 
behaved,  and  whether  the  report  will  be  good 
Recently,  the  eldest,  an  active  urchin  of  five,  in 
one  of  those  bursts  of  animal  spirits  common  in 
healthy  children,  committed  sundry  extravagances 
during  his  mamma's  absence — cut  off  part  of  his 
brother's  hair  and  wounded  himself  with  a  razor 
taken  from  his  father's  dressing-case.  Hearing  oi 
these  occurrences  on  his  return,  the  father  did  not 
speak  to  the  boy  either  that  night  or  next  morning. 
Not  only  was  the  tribulation  great,  but  the  subse- 
quent effect  was,  that  when,  a  few  days  after,  the 
mamma  was  about  to  go  out,  she  was  earnestly  en- 
treated  by  the  boy  not  to  do  so ;  and  on  inquiry,  it 
appeared  his  fear  was  that  he  might  again  transgress 
in  her  absence. 

We  have  introduced  these  facts  before  replying  to 
the  question — "  What  is  to  be  done  with  the  grave? 
offences  1  "  for  the  purpose  of  first  exhibiting  the  re 
lation  that  may  and  ought  to  be  established  between 
parents  and  children ;  for  on  the  existence  of  this  re- 
lation depends  the  successful  treatment  of  the** 


208  EDUCATION. 

graver  offences.  And  as  a  further  preliminary,  we 
must  now  point  out  that  the  establishment  of  this  re- 
lation will  result  from  adopting  the  system  we  advo- 
cate. Already  we  have  shown  that  by  letting  a 
child  experience  simply  the  painful  reactions  of  its 
own  wrong  actions,  a  parent  in  great  measure  avoids 
assuming  the  attitude  of  an  enemy,  and  escapes  be 
ing  regarded  as  one ;  but  it  still  remains  to  be  shown 
that  where  this  course  has  been  consistently  pursued 
from  the  beginning,  a  strong  feeling  of  active  friend- 
ship will  be  generated. 

At  present.,  mothers  and  fathers  are  mostly  con- 
sidered  by  their  offspring  as  friend-enemies.  Deter- 
mined as  their  impressions  inevitably  are  by  the 
treatment  they  receive ;  and  oscillating  as  that  treat- 
ment does  between  bribery  and  thwarting,  between 
petting  and  scolding,  between  gentleness  and  casti. 
gation ;  children  necessarily  acquire  conflicting  be- 
liefs respecting  the  parental  character.  A  mother 
commonly  thinks  it  quite  sufficient  to  tell  her  little 
boy  that  she  is  his  best  friend ;  and  assuming  that  he 
is  in  duty  bound  to  believe  her,  concludes  that  he 
will  forthwith  do  so.  * '  It  is  all  for  your  good ;  "  "1 
know  what  is  proper  for  you  better  than  you  do 
yourself;  "  "  You  are  not  old  enough  to  understand 
it  now,  but  when  you  grow  up  you  will  thank  me 


MORAL  EDUCATION.  209 

tor  doing  what  I  do ; " — these,  and  like  assertions, 
ire  daily  reiterated.  Meanwhile  the  boy  is  daily  suf- 
fering positive  penalties ;  and  is  hourly  forbidden  to 
do  this,  that,  and  the  other,  which  he  was  anxious  to 
do.  By  words  he  hears  that  his  happiness  is  the  end 
in  view;  but  from  the  accompanying  deeds  he 
habitually  receives  more  or  less  pain.  Utterly  in- 
competent as  he  is  to  understand  that  future  which 
his  mother  has  in  view,  or  how  this  treatment  con- 
duces to  the  happiness  of  that  future,  he  judges  by 
such  results  as  he  feels ;  and  finding  these  results 
anything  but  pleasurable,  he  becomes  sceptical  re- 
specting these  professions  of  friendship.  And  is  it  not 
folly  to  expect  any  other  issue  ?  Must  not  the  child 
judge  by  such  evidence  as  he  has  got  ?  and  does  not 
this  evidence  seem  to  warrant  his  conclusion  ?  The 
mother  would  reason  in  just  the  same  wayifsimilarl 
placed.  If,  in  the  circle  of  her  acquaintance,  she 
found  some  one  who  was  constantly  thwarting  her 
wishes,  uttering  sharp  reprimands,  and  occasionally 
in  {lifting  actual  penalties  on  her,  she  would  pay  but 
little  attention  to  any  professions  of  anxiety  for  hei~ 
welfare  which  accompanied  these  acts.  Why,  then, 
does  she  suppose  that  her  boy  will  conclude  other- 
wise? 

But  now  observe  how  different  will  be  the  result* 
14 


2W  EDUCATION. 

if  the  system  we  contend  for  be  consistently  pursued 
— if  the  mother  not  only  avoids  becoming  the  instru 
ment  of  punishment,  but  plays  the  part  of  a  friend, 
by  warning  her  boy  of  the  punishments  which  JNa- 
ture  will  inflict.  Take  a  case ;  raid  that  it  may  il- 
lustrate the  mode  in  which  this  policy  is  to  be  early 
initiated,  let  it  be  one  of  the  simplest  cases.  Sup- 
pose that,  prompted  by  the  experimental  spirit  so 
conspicuous  in  children,  whose  proceedings  instinct- 
ively conform  to  the  inductive  method  of  inquiry — 
suppose  that  so  prompted  the  child  is  amusing  him- 
self by  lighting  pieces  of  paper  in  the  candle  and 
watching  them  burn.  If  his  mother  is  of  the  ordin- 
ary unreflective  stamp,  she  will  either,  on  the  plea  ot 
keeping  the  child  "out  of  mischief,"  or  from  fear 
that  he  will  burn  himself,  command  him  to  desist  ; 
and  in  case  of  non-compliance  will  snatch  the  paper 
from  him.  On  the  other  hand,  should  he  be  so  for- 
tunate as  to  have  a  mother  of  sufficient  rationality, 
who  knows  that  this  interest  with  which  the  child  is 
watching  the  paper  burn  results  from  a  healthy  in- 
quisitiveness,  without  which  he  would  never  have 
3merged  out  of  infantine  stupidity,  and  who  is  also 
wise  enough  to  consider  the  moral  results  of  inter* 
terence,  she  will  reason  thus : — "  If  I  put  a  stop  t* 
this  I  shall  prevent  the  acquirement  of  a  certain 


MORAL  EDUCATION.  811 

amount  of  knowledge.  It  is  true  that  I  may  save 
the  child  from  a  burn  ;  but  what  then  ?  He  is  sure 
to  burn  himself  some  time ;  and  it  is  quite  essential 
to  his  safety  in  life  that  he  should  learn  by  experi- 
ence the  properties  of  flame.  Moreover,  if  I  forbid 
him  from  running  this  present  risk,  he  is  sure  here- 
after to  run  the  same  or  a  greater  risk  when  no  one 
is  present  to  prevent  him  ;  whereas,  if  he  should  have 
any  accident  now  that  I  am  by,  I  can  save  him  from 
any  great  injury ;  add  to  which  the  advantage  that 
he  will  have  in  future  some  dread  of  fire,  and  will 
be  less  likely  to  burn  himself  to  death,  or  set  the 
house  in  a  flame  when  others  are  absent.  Further- 
more, were  I  to  make  him  desist,  I  should  thwart 
him  in  the  pursuit  of  what  is  in  itself  a  purely  harm- 
less, and  indeed,  instructive  gratification;  and  he 
would  be  sure  to  regard  me  with  more  or  less  ill- 
feeling.  Ignorant  as  he  is  of  the  pain  from  which  I 
would  save  him,  and  feeling  only  the  pain  of  a  balked 
desire,  he  could  not  fail  to  look  upon  me  as  the 
oause  of  that  pain.  To  save  him  from  a  hurt  which 
he  cannot  conceive,  and  which  has  therefore  no  ex- 
istence for  him,  I  inflict  upon  him  a  hurt  which  he 
feels  keenly  enough ;  and  so  become,  from  his  point 
of  view,  a  minister  of  evil.  My  best  course  then,  is 
amply  to  warn  him  of  the  danger,  and  to  be  ready 


«*  EDUCATION. 

to  prevent  any  serious  damage."  And  following  oat 
ihis  conclusion,  she  says  to  the  child — "  I  fear  you 
mil  hurt  yourself  if  you  do  that."  Suppose,  now, 
fchat  the  child  perseveres,  as  he  will  very  probably 
do ;  and  suppose  that  he  ends  by  burning  himself 
What  are  the  results  ?  In  the  first  place  he  ha? 
'gained  an  experience  which  he  must  gain  eventuallyv 
and  which,  for  his  own  safety  he  cannot  gain  toe 
soon.  And  in  the  second  place,  he  has  found  that 
his  mother's  disapproval  or  warning  was  meant  for 
his  welfare :  he  has  a  further  positive  experience  of 
her  benevolence — a  further  reason  for  placing  confi- 
dence in  her  judgment  and  her  kindness — a  further 
reason  for  loving  her. 

Of  course,  in  those  occasional  hazards  where  there 
is  a  risk  of  broken  limbs  or  other  serious  bodily  in- 
jury, forcible  prevention  is  called  for.  But  leaving 
out  these  extreme  cases,  the  system  pursued  should 
be  not  that  of  guarding  a  child  against  the  small 
dangers  into  which  it  daily  runs,  but  that  of  advis- 
ing and  warning  it  against  them.  And  by  consist- 
ently pursuing  this  course,  a  much  stronger  filial  af- 
faction  will  be  generated  than  commonly  exists.  If 
here,  as  elsewhere,  the  discipline  of  the  natural  reac 
tions  is  allowed  to  come  into  play — if  in  all  those 
out-of-door  scramblings  and  in-door  experiments,  by 


MORAL  EDUCATION.  313 

which  children  are  liable  to  hurt  themselves,  they 
are  allowed  to  persevere,  subject  only  to  dissuaskm 
more  or  less  earnest  according  to  the  risk,  ther?  can- 
not  fail  to  arise  an  ever-increasing  faith  in  the  pa- 
rental friendship  and  guidance.  Not  only,  as  before 
shown,  does  the  adoption  of  this  principle  enable 
fathers  and  mothers  to  avoid  the  chief  part  of  that 
odium  which  attaches  to  the  infliction  of  positive 
punishment ;  but,  as  we  here  see,  it  enables  them 
further  to  avoid  the  odium  that  attaches  to  constant 
thwartings  ;  and  even  to  turn  each  of  those  inci- 
dents which  commonly  cause  squabbles,  into  a  means 
of  strengthening  the  mutual  good  feeling.  Instead 
if  being  told  in  words,  which  deeds  seem  to  contra- 
dict, that  their  parents  are  their  best  friends,  chil- 
dren will  learn  this  truth  by  a  consistent  daily  ex- 
perience ;  and  so  learning  it,  will  acquire  a  degree 
of  trust  and  attachment  which  nothing  else  can  give. 

And  now  having  indicated  the  much  more  sympa- 
thetic relation  which  must  result  from  the  habitual 
use  of  this  method,  let  us  return  to  the  question 
above  put — How  is  this  method  to  be  applied  to  the 
graver  offences? 

Note,  in  the  first  place,  that  these  graver  offences 
are  likely  to  be  both  less  frequent  and  less  grave 
under  the  regime  we  have  described  thai?  under  the 


214  EDUCATION 

ordinary  regime.  The  perpetual  ill-behavior  of  mam 
:  children  is  itself  the  consequence  of  that  chronic  ir 
fitation  in  which  they  are  kept  by  bad  management 
The  state  of  isolation  and  antagonism  produced  bj 
frequent  punishment,  necessarily  deadenu  the  sympa- 
thies ;  necessarily,  therefore,  opens  the  way  to  those 
transgressions  which  the  sympathies  should  check. 
That  harsh  treatment  which  children  of  the  same 
family  inflict  on  each  other  is  often,  in  great  meas- 
ure, a  reflex  of  the  harsh  treatment  they  receive  from 
adults — partly  suggested  by  direct  example,  and 
partly  generated  by  the  ill  temper  and  the  tendency 
to  vicarious  retaliation,  which  follow  chastisements 
and  scoldings.  It  cannot  be  questioned  that  the 
greater  activity  of  the  affections  and  happier  state  of 
feeling,  maintained  in  children  by  the  discipline  we 
fiave  described,  must  prevent  their  sins  against  each 
other  from  being  either  so  great  or  so  frequent 
Moreover,  the  still  more  reprehensible  offences,  a* 
lies  and  petty  thefts,  will,  by  the  same  causes,  be  di- 
minished. Domestic  estrangement  is  a  fruitful 
source  of  such  transgressions.  It  is  a  law  of  human 
nature,  visible  enough  to  all  who  observe,  that  those 
who  are  debarred  the  higher  gratifications  fall  back 
upon  the  lower;  those  who  have  no  sympathetic 
pleasures  seek  so-'7"1  "*nes  •  and  hence,  conversely 


MORAL  EDUCATION.  216 

the  maintenance  of  happier  relations  "between  par 
ents  and  children  is  calculated  to  diminish  the  num. 
ber  of  those  offences  of  which  selfishness  is  the  ori- 
gin. 

When,  however,  such  offences  are  committed,  as 
they  will  occasionally  be  even  under  the  best  system, 
the  discipline  of  consequences  may  still  be  resorted 
to;  and  if  there  exist  that  bond  of  confidence  and 
affection  which  we  have  described,  this  discipline 
will  be  found  efficient.  For  what  are  the  natural 
consequences,  say,  of  a  theft  ?  They  are  of  two 
kinds — direct  and  indirect.  The  direct  consequence, 
as  dictated  by  pure  equity,  is  that  of  making  resti- 
tution. An  absolutely  just  ruler  (and  every  parent 
should  aim  to  be  one)  will  demand  that,  wherever  it 
is  possible,  a  wrong  act  shall  be  undone  by  a  right 
one :  and  in  the  case  of  theft  this  implies  either  the 
restoration  of  the  thing  stolen,  or,  if  it  is  consumed, 
then  the  giving  of  an  equivalent :  which,  in  the  case 
Of  a  child,  may  be  effected  out  of  its  pocket-money. 
The  indirect  and  more  serious  consequence  is  the 
grave  displeasure  of  parents — a  consequence  which 
inevitably  follows  among  all  peoples  sufficiently  civ 
ilized  to  regard  theft  as  a  crime  ;  and  the  manifesta- 
tion of  this  displeasure  is,  in  this  instance,  the  most 
severe  of  the  natural  reactions  produced  by  the 


816  EDUCATION. 

wrong  action.  "But,"  it  will  be  said,  -the  manife* 
fcation  of  parental  displeasure,  either  in  words  of 
blows,  is  the  ordinary  course  in  these  cases :  the 
method  leads  here  to  nothing  new."  Very  true. 
Already  we  have  admitted  that,  in  some  directions, 
this  method  is  spontaneously  pursued.  Already  we 
have  shown  that  there  is  a  more  or  less  manifest 
tendency  for  educational  systems  to  gravitate  toward 
the  true  system.  And  here  we  may  remark,  as  be- 
fore, that  the  intensity  of  this  natural  reaction  will, 
in  the  beneficent  order  of  things,  adjust  itself  to  the 
requirements  —  that  this  parental  displeasure  will 
vent  itself  in  violent  measures  during  comparatively 
barbarous  times,  when  the  children  are  also  compar- 
atively barbarous ;  and  will  express  itself  less  cruelly 
in  those  more  advanced  social  states  in  which,  bj 
implication,  the  children  are  amenable  to  mildei 
treatment.  But  what  it  chiefly  concerns  us  here  ta 
>bserve  is,  that  the  manifestation  of  strong  parent^ 
iispleasure,  produced  by  one  of  these  graver  offences 
will  be  potent  for  good  just  in  proportion  to  th| 
warmth  of  the  attachment  existing  between  parent 
and  child.  Just  in  proportion  as  the  discipline  ot 
the  natural  consequences  has  beep,  consistently 
pursued  in  other  cases,  will  it  be  efficient  in  tfctt 


MORAL  EDUCATION.  217 

case.     Proof  is  within  the  experience  of  all,  if  they 
will  look  for  it. 

For  does  not  every  man  know  that  when  he  has 
offended  another  person,  the  amount  of  genuine 
regret  he  feels  (of  course,  leaving  worldly  consider- 
ations out  of  the  question)  varies  with  the  degree  of 
sympathy  he  has  for  that  person.  Is  he  not  con- 
scious that  when  the  person  offended  stands  to  him 
in  the  position  of  an  enemy,  the  having  given  him 
annoyance  is  apt  to  be  a  scource  rather  of  secret 
satisfaction  than  of  sorrow  ?  Does  he  not  remember 
that  where  umbrage  has  been  taken  by  some  total 
atranger,  he  has  felt  much  less  concern  that  he  would 
have  done  had  such  umbrage  been  taken  by  one  with 
whom  he  was  intimate  ?  While,  conversely,  has  not 
the  anger  of  an  admired  and  cherished  friend  been 
regarded  by  him  as  a  serious  misfortune,  long  and 
keenly  regretted  ?  Clearly,  then,  the  effects  of  pa- 
rental displeasure  upon  children  must  similarly 
depend  upon  the  pre-existing  relationship.  Where 
there  is  an  established  alienation,  the  feeling 
of  a  child  who  has  transgressed  is  a  purely  selfish 
fear  of  the  evil  consequences  likely  to  fall  upon  it 
in  the  shape  of  physical  penalties  or  deprivations ; 
and  after  these  evil  consequences  have  been  inflicted, 
there  are  aroused  an  antagonism  and  dislike  which  are 


218  EDUCATION. 

morally  injurious,  and  tend  further  to  increase  the 
alienation.  On  the  contrary,  where  there  exists  a 
warm  filial  affection  produced  by  a  consistent  pa- 
rental friendship — a  friendship  not  dogmatically  as- 
serted as  an  excuse  for  punishments  and  denials,  but 
daily  exhibited  in  ways  that  a  child  can  comprehend 
— a  friendship  which  avoids  needless  thwartings. 
which  warns  against  impending  evil  consequences, 
and  which  sympathizes  with  juvenile  pursuits — 
there  the  state  of  mind  caused  by  parental  displeasure 
will  not  only  be  salutary  as  a  check  to  future  mis- 
conduct of  like  kind,  but  will  also  be  intrinsically 
salutary.  The  moral  pain  consequent  upon  having, 
for  the  time  being,  lost  so  loved  a  friend,  will  stand 
in  place  of  the  physical  pain  usually  inflicted  ;  and 
where  this  attachment  exists,  will  prove  equally,  if 
not  more,  efficient.  While  instead  of  the  fear  and 
vindictiveness  excited  by  the  one  course,  there  will 
be  excited  by  the  other  more  or  less  of  sympathy 
with  parental  sorrow,  a  genuine  regret  for  having 
caused  it,  and  a  desire,  by  some  atonement,  to  re- 
establish the  habitual  friendly  relationship.  Instead 
of  bringing  into  play  those  purely  egotistic  feelings 
whose  predominance  is  the  cause  of  criminal  acts, 
there  will  be  brought  into  play  those  altruistic  feel- 
ings which  check  criminal  acts.  Thus  the  discipline 


MORAL  EDUCATION.  W 

of  the  natural  consequences  is  applicable  to  grave  as 
well  as  trivial  faults ;  and  the  practice  of  it  conduces 
not  simply  to  the  repression,  but  to  the  eradication 
of  such  faults. 

In  brief,  the  truth  is  that  savageness  begets  sav- 
ageness,  and  gentleness  begets  gentleness.  Children 
who  are  unsympathetically  treated  become  relatively 
unsympathetic  ;  whereas  treating  them  with  due 
fellow  feeling  is  a  means  of  cultivating  their  fellow- 
feeling.  With  family  governments  as  with  political 
ones,  a  harsh  despotism  itself  generates  a  great  part 
of  the  crimes  it  has  to  repress ;  while  conversely  a 
mild  and  liberal  rule  not  only  avoids  many  causes 
of  dissension,  but  so  ameliorates  the  tone  of  feeling 
as  to  diminish  the  tendency  to  transgression.  As 
John  Locke  long  since  remarked,  "  Great  severity 
of  punishment  does  but  very  little  good,  nay,  great 
iharm,  in  education ;  and  I  believe  it  will  be  found 
fchat,  zopferis  paribus,  those  children  who  have  been 
*K;l  chastised  seldom  make  the  best  men."  In 
confirmation  of  which  opinion  we  may  cite  the  fact 
not  long  since  made  public  by  Mr.  Rogers,  Chaplain 
of  the  Fentonville  Prison,  that  those  juvenile  crim- 
inals who  have  been  whipped  are  those  who  most 
frequently  return  to  prison.  On  the  other  hand,  as 
exhibiting  the  beiu^uua  effects  of  a  kinder  treat- 


220  EDUCATION. 

ment,  we  will  instance  the  fact  stated  to  ns  by  & 
French  lady,  in  whose  house  we  recently  staid  in?, 
Paris.  Apologizing  for  the  disturbance  daily  caused 
by  a  little  boy  who  was  unmanageable  both  at  homt 
and  at  school,  she  expressed  her  fear  that  there  was 
no  remedy  save  that  which  had  succeeded  in  the 
case  of  an  elder  brother ;  namely,  sending  him  to  an 
English  school.  She  explained  that  at  various 
schools  in  Paris  this  elder  brother  had  proved 
utterly  untractable;  that  in  despair  they  had  fol- 
lowed the  advice  to  send  him  to  England ;  and  that 
on  his  return  home  he  was  as  good  as  he  had  before 
been  bad.  And  this  remarkable  change  she  ascribed 
entirely  to  the  comparative  mildness  of  the  English 
discipline. 

After  this  exposition  of  principles,  our  remaining 
space  may  best  be  occupied  by  a  few  of  the  chief 
maxims  and  rules  deducible  from  them  ;  and  with  a 
view  to  brevity  we  will  put  these  in  a  more  or  less 
hortatory  form. 

Do  not  expect  from  a  child  any  great  amount  of 
moral  goodness.  During  early  years  every  civilized 
man  passes  through  that  phase  of  character  exhibited 
by  the  barbarous  race  from  which  he  is  descended. 
As  the  child's  features — flai  nose,  for  ward -opening 
nostrils,  large  lips,  wide-apart  eyes,  absent  frontal 


jtORAL  EDUCATION  221 

sinus,  etc. — i-esemble  for  a  time  those  of  tne  savage, 
so,  too,  do  his  instincts  Hence  the  tendencies  to 
cruelty,  to  thieving,  to  lying,  so  general  among 
children — tendencies  which,  even  without  the  aid 
of  discipline,  will  become  more  or  less  modified  just 
as  the  features  do.  The  popular  idea  that  children 
are  "  innocent,"  while  it  may  be  true  in  so  far  as  it 
reters  to  evil  knowledge,  is  totally  false  in  so  far  as  it 
refers  to  evil  impulses,  as  half  an  hour's  observation 
in  the  nursery  will  prove  to  any  one.  Boys  when 
left  to  themselves,  as  at  a  public  school,  treat  each 
other  far  more  brutally  than  men  do  ;  and  were  they 
left  to  themselves  at  an  earlier  age  their  brutality 
would  be  still  more  conspicuous. 

Not  only  is  it  unwise  to  set  up  a  high  standard 
for  juvenile  good  conduct,  but  it  is  even  unwise  to 
use  very  urgent  incitements  to  such  good  conduct. 
Already  most  people  recognize  the  detrimental  re« 
suits  of  intellectual  precocity ;  but  there  remains  tc 
be  recognized  the  truth  that  there  if  a  moral  pre 
cocity  which  is  also  detrimental.  Our  higher  moral 
faculties,  like  our  higher  intellectual  ones,  are  com- 
paratively complex.  By  consequence  they  are  both 
comparatively  late  in  their  evolution.  And  with 
the  one  as  with  the  other,  a  very  early  activity  pro- 
duced by  stimulation  will  be  at  the  expense  of  the 


*2  EDUCATION. 

future  character.  Hence  the  not  uncommon  fact 
that  those  who  during  childhood  were  instanced  as 
models  of  juvenile  goodness,  by  and  by  undergo 
some  disastrous  and  seemingly  inexplicable  change, 
and  end  by  being  not  above  but  below  par ,  while 
relatively  exemplary  men  are  often  the  issue  ef  a 
childhood  by  no  means  so  promising. 

Be  content,  therefore,  with  moderate  measures? 
and  moderate  results.  Constantly  bear  in  mind  the 
fact  that  a  higher  morality,  like  a  higher  intelligence^ 
must  be  reached  by  a  slow  growth ;  and  you  will 
then  have  more  patience  with  those  imperfections 
of  nature  which  your  child  hourly  displays.  You 
will  be  less  prone  to  that  constant  scolding,  and 
threatening,  and  forbidding,  by  which  many  parents 
induce  a  chronic  domestic  irritation,  in  the  foolish 
hope  that  they  will  thus  make  their  children  what 
they  should  be. 

This  comparatively  liberal  form  of  domestic  gov- 
ernment, which  does  not  seek  despotically  to  reg- 
ulate all  the  details  of  a  child's  conduct,  necessarily 
results  from  the  sj'stem  for  which  we  have  been 
eon  tend  ing.  Sa-tisfy  yourself  with  seeing  that  your 
child  always  suffers  the  natural  consequences  of  his 
actions,  and  you  will  avoid  that  excess  of  control  in 
which  so  many  parents  err.  Leave  him  wherever 


MORAL  EDUCATION.  223 

you.  can  to  the  discipline  of  experience,  and  you  will 
so  save  him  from  that  hothouse  virtue  which  over- 
regulation  produces  in  yielding  natures,  or  that 
iemor  all  zing  antagonism  which  it  produces  in  inde- 
pendent ones. 

By  aiming  in  all  cases  to  administer  the  natura! 
reactions  to  your  child's  actions,  you  will  put  an  ad- 
vantageous check  upon  your  own  temper.  The 
mothod  of  moral  education  pursued  by  many,  we  fear 
1 1/  most,  parents,  is  little  else  than  that  of  venting 
their  anger  in  the  way  that  first  suggests  itself.  The 
slaps,  and  rough  shakings,  and  sharp  words,  with 
which  a  mother  commonly  visits  her  offspring's 
small  offences  (many  of  them  not  offences  consid- 
ered intrinsically),  are  very  generally  but  the  mani- 
festations of  her  own  ill-controlled  feelings — result 
much  more  from  the  promptings  of  those  feelings 
than  from  a  wish  to  benefit  the  offenders.  While 
they  are  injurious  to  her  own  character,  these  ebulli 
tions  tend,  by  alienating  her  children  and  by  de- 
creasing th  ;.j  respect  for  her,  to  diminish  her  in- 
fluence over  them.  But  by  pausing  in  each  case  of 
transgression  to  consider  what  is  the  natural  conse* 
quince,  and  how  that  natural  consequence  may  best 
be  orought  home  to  the  transgressor,  some  little 
time  is  necessarily  obtained  for  the  mastery  of  yocu. 


224  EDUCATION. 

self ;  the  mere  blind  anger  first  aroused  in  you  set- 
tles down  into  a  less  vehement  feeling,  and  one  not 
so  likely  to  mislead  you. 

Do  not,  however,  seek  to  behave  as  an  utterly 
passionless  instrument.  Remember  that  besides  the 
natural  consequences  of  your  child's  conduct  which 
the  working  of  things  tends  to  bring  round  on  him, 
your  'udrn  approbation  or  disapprobation  is  also  * 
natural  consequence,  and  one  of  the  ordained  agen 
cies  for  guiding  him.  The  terror  which  we  have 
been  combating  is  that  of  substituting  parental  dis- 
pleasure and  its  artificial  penalties,  for  the  penalties 
which  nature  has  established.  But  while  it  should 
not  be  substituted  for  these  natural  penalties,  it  by 
no  means  follows  that  it  should  not,  in  some  form, 
accompanying  them.  The  secondary  kind  of  punish- 
ment should  not  usurp  the  place  of  the  primary  kind  ; 
but,  in  moderation,  it  may  rightly  supplement  the 
primary  kind.  Such  amount  of  disapproval,  or  sor- 
row, or  indignation,  as  you  feel,  should  be  expressed 
in  words  or  manner  or  otherwise  ;  subject,  of  course, 
to  the  approval  of  your  judgment.  The  degree  and 
kind  of  feeling  produced  in  you  will  necessarily  de 
pend  upon  your  own  character,  and  it  is  therefor*: 
useless  to  say  it  should  be  this  or  that.  All  that  can 
be  recommended  is,  that  you  should  aim  to  modify 


MORAL  EDUCATION.  225 

the  feeling  into  that  which  you  believe  ought  to  be 
entertained.  Beware,  however,  of  the  two  extremes ; 
not  only  in  respect  of  the  intensity,  but  in  respect 
jf  the  duration  of  your  displeasure.  On  the  one 
hand,  anxiously  avoid  that  weak  impulsiveness,  so 
general  among  mothers,  which  scolds  and  forgives 
almost  in  the  same  breath.  On  the  other  hand,  do 
not  unduly  continue  to  show  estrangement  of  feel- 
ing lest  you  accustom  your  child  to  do  without  your 
friendship  and  so  lose  your  influence  over  him.  The 
moral  reactions  called  forth  from  you  by  your  child's 
actions,  you  should  as  much  as  possible  assimilate  to 
those  which  you  conceive  would  be  called  forth  from 
a  parent  of  perfect  nature. 

Be  sparing  of  commands.  Command  only  in  those 
cases  in  which  other  means  are  inapplicable,  or  have 
failed.  ' '  In  frequent  orders  the  parents'  advantage 
is  more  considered  than  the  child's,"  say  Richter. 
As  in  primitive  societies  a  breach  of  law  is  punished, 
not  so  much  because  it  is  intrinsically  wrong  as  be 
cause  it  is  a  disregard  of  the  king's  authority — a  re 
bellion  against  him ;  so  in  many  families,  the  penalty 
visited  on  a  transgressor  proceeds  less  from  reproba- 
tion of  the  offence  than  from  anger  at  the  disobe- 
dience. Listen  to  the  ordinary  speeches — "  How 
dare  you  disobey  me  ?  "  "I  tell  you  I'll  make  you 
'5 


236  EDUCATION. 

do  it,  sir.'*  "I'll  soon  teach  you  who  is  master  " — 
and  then  consider  what  the  words,  the  tone,  and  the 
manner  imply.  A  determination  to  subjugate  is 
much  more  conspicuous  in  them  than  an  anxiety  for 
the  child's  welfare.  For  the  time  being  the  attitude 
of  mind  differs  but  little  from  that  of  the  despot  bent 
on  punishing  a  recalcitrant  subject.  The  right-feel- 
ing parent,  however,  like  the  philanthropic  legis 
lator,  will  not  rejoice  in  coercion,  but  will  rejoin-  in 
dispensing  with  coercion.  He  will  do  without  law 
in  all  cases  where  other  modes  of  regulating  conduct 
can  be  successfully  employed;  and  he  will  regret  the 
having  recourse  to  law  when  it  is  necessary.  As 
Richter  remarks — "The  best  rule  in  politics  is  said 
to  be  lpas  trop  gouvemer : '  it  is  also  true  in  educa- 
tion." And  in  spontaneous  conformity  with  this 
maxim,  parents  whose  lust  of  dominion  is  restrained 
by  a  true  sense  of  duty,  will  aim  to  make  their 
children  control  themselves  wherever  it  is  possible, 
and  will  fall  back  upon  absolutism  only  as  a  lust  resort. 
But  whenever  you  do  command,  command  with 
decision  and  consistency.  If  the  case  is  one  which 
really  cannot  be  otherwise  dealt  with,  then  issue 
your  fiat,  and  having  issued  it,  never  afterward 
swerve  from  it.  Consider  well  beforehand  what  you 
are  going  to  do ;  weigh  all  the  consequences ;  think 


MORAL  EDVOATKOL  221 

whether  yonr  firmness  of  purpose  wi'i  be  sufficient ; 
and  then,  if  you  finally  make  the  law,  enforce  it  uni- 
formly at  whatever  cost.  Let  your  penalties  be  like 
the  penalties  inflicted  by  inanimate  nature — inevi- 
table. The  hot  cinder  burns  a  child  the  first  time 
he  seizes  it ;  it  burns  him  the  second  time ;  it  burns 
him  the  third  time ;  it  burns  him  every  time  ;  and  ha 
very  soon  learns  not  to  touch  the  hot  cinder.  If 
you  are  equally  consistent — if  the  consequences  which 
you  tell  your  child  will  follow  certain  acts,  follow 
with  like  uniformity,  he  will  soon  come  to  respect 
your  laws  as  he  does  those  of  Nature.  And  this 
respect  once  established  will  prevent  endless  domes- 
tic evils.  Of  errors  in  education  one  of  the  worst 
(s  that  of  inconsistency.  As  in  a  community,  crimes 
multiply  when  there  is  no  certain  administration  of 
justice ;  so  in  a  family,  an  immense  increase  of  trans- 
gressions results  from  a  hesitating  or  irregular  in- 
fliction of  penalties.  A  weak  mother,  who  perpet- 
ually threatens  and  rarely  performs — who  makes 
tules  in  haste  and  repents  of  them  at  leisure — who 
treats  the  same  offence  now  with  severity  and  now 
with  leniency,  according  as  the  passing  humor  die 
tates,  is  laying  up  miseries  both  for  herself  and  her 
chiliren.  She  is  making  herself  contemptible  in 
their  eyes ;  she  is  setting  them  an  example  of  u&- 


228  EDUCATION. 

controlled  feelings ;  she  is  encouraging  them  to  trans 
gress  by  the  prospect  of  probable  impunity ;  she  is 
entailing  endless  squabbles  and  accompanying  dam« 
age  to  her  own  temper  and  the  tempers  of  her  little 
ones ;  she  is  reducing  their  minds  to  a  moral  chaos* 
which  after  years  of  bitter  experience  will  with  dii 
ficulty  bring  into  order.  Better  even  a  barbarous 
form  of  domestic  government  carried  out  consist 
tentiy,  than  a  humane  one  inconsistently  carried  out 
Again  we  say,  avoid  coercive  measures  whenever  it 
is  possible  to  do  so ;  but  when  you  find  despotism 
really  necessary,  be  despotic  in  good  earnest. 

Bear  constantly  in  mind  the  truth  that  the  aim 
•yf  your  discipline  should  be  to  produce  a  self-govern- 
ing being ;  not  to  produce  a  being  to  be  governed  by 
others.  Were  your  children  fated  to  pass  their  lives 
as  slaves,  you  could  not  too  much  accustom  them  to 
slavery  during  their  childhood ;  but  as  they  are  by 
and  by  to  be  free  men,  with  no  one  to  control  their 
daily  conduct,  you  cannot  too  much  accustom  them 
to  self-control  while  they  are  still  under  your  eye. 
This  it  is  which  makes  the  system  of  discipline  by 
natural  consequences,  so  especially  appropriate  to  the 
social  state  which  we  in  England  have  now  reached 
Under  early,  tyrannical  forms  of  society,  when  one 
of  the  chief  evils  the  citizen  had  to  fear  was  th* 


MORAL  EDUCATION.  229 

anger  of  his  superiors,  it  was  well  that  during  child- 
hood parental  vengeance  should  be  a  predominant 
means  of  government.  But  now  that  the  citizen 
has  little  to  fear  from  any  one — now  that  the  good 
or  evil  which  he  experiences  throughout  life  is  mainly 
that  which  in  the  nature  of  things  results  from  his 
own  conduct,  it  is  desirable  that  from  his  first  years 
he  should  begin  to  Jearn,  experimentally,  the  good 
or  evil  consequences  which  naturally  follow  this  or 
that  conduct.  Aim,  therefore,  to  diminish  the 
amount  of  parental  government  as  fast  as  you  can 
substitute  for  it  in  your  child's  mind  that  self-gov- 
ernment arising  from  a  foresight  of  results.  In  in- 
fancy a  considerable  amount  of  absolutism  is  neces- 
sary. A  three-year-old  urchin  playing  with  an  open 
razor,  cannot  be  allowed  to  learn  by  this  discipline 
of  consequences;  for  the  consequences  may,  in  such 
case,  be  too  serious.  But  as  intelligence  increases, 
the  number  of  instances  calling  for  peremptory  in- 
terference may  be,  and  should  be,  diminished ;  with 
the  view  of  gradually  ending  them  as  maturity  is 
approached.  All  periods  of  transition  are  danger- 
ous ;  and  the  most  dangerous  is  the  transition  fonr 
the  restraint  of  the  family  circle  to  the  non-restraint 
of  the  world.  Hence  the  importance  of  pursuing 
the  policy  we  advocate ;  whi«h,  alike  by  cultivating  a 


230  EDUCATION. 

child's  faculty  of  self-restraint,  by  continually  IB- 
creasing  the  degree  in  which  it  is  left  to  its  self-con- 
straint, and  by  so  bringing  it,  step  by  step,  to  a  state 
of  unaided  self-constraint,  obliterates  the  ordinary 
sudden  and  hazardous  change  from  external  ly-gov 
eraed  youth  to  internally-governed  maturity.  Let 
the  history  of  your  domestic  rule  typify,  in  little,  the 
history  of  our  political  rule:  at  the  outset,  autocratic 
control,  where  control  is  really  needful;  by  and  by 
an  incipient  constitutionalism,  in  which  the  liberty 
of  the  subject  gains  some  express  recognition ;  suc- 
cessive extensions  of  this  liberty  of  the  subject; 
gradually  ending  in  parental  abdication. 

Do  not  regret  the  exhibition  of  coniderable  self- 
will  on  the  part  of  your  children.  It  is  the  correla- 
tive of  that  diminished  coerciveness  so  conspicuous 
in  modern  education.  The  greater  tendency  to  as- 
sert freedom  of  action  on  the  one  side,  corresponds 
to  the  smaller  tendency  to  tyrannize  on  the  other. 
They  both  indicate  an  approach  to  the  system  of  dis- 
cipline we  contend  for,  under  which  children  will  be 
more  and  more  led  to  rule  themselves  by  the  exper 
ience  of  natural  consequences;  and  they  are  both  the 
accompaniments  of  our  more  advanced  social  state. 
The  independent  English  boy  i«  1lio  father  of  the 
independent  English  man;  and  you  cannot  have  the 


MORAL  EDUCATION.  231 

last  without  the  first.  German  teachers  say  that 
they  had  rather  manage  a  dozen  German  boys  than 
one  English  one.  Shall  we,  therefore,  wish  that  our 
boys  had  the  manageableness  of  the  German  ones, 
and  with  it  the  submissiveness  and  political  serfdom 
of  adult  Germans  ?  Or  shall  we  not  rather  tolerate 
in  our  boys  those  feelings  which  make  them  free 
men,  and  modify  our  methods  accordingly  ? 

Lastly,  always  remember  that  to  educate  rightly 
is  not  a  simple  and  easy  thing,  but  a  complex  and 
extremely  difficult  thing :  the  hardest  task  which 
devolves  upon  adult  life.  The  rough  and  ready 
style  of  domestic  government  is  indeed  practicable 
by  the  meanest  and  most  uncultivated  intellects. 
Slaps  and  sharp  words  are  penalties  that  suggest 
themselves  alike  to  the  least  reclaimed  barbarian  and 
the  most  stolid  peasant.  Even  brutes  can  use  this 
method  of  discipline ;  as  you  may  see  in  the  growl 
and  half-bite  with  which  a  bitch  will  check  a  toc- 
$xigeant  puppy.  But  if  you  would  carry  out  with 
tuccess  a  rational  and  civilized  system,  you  must  be 
prepared  for  considerable  mental  exertion — for  some 
study,  some  ingenuity,  some  patience,  some  self  con- 
trol. You  will  have  habitually  to  trace  the  conse- 
quences of  conduct — to  (Consider  what  are  the  resulta 
which  in  adult  life  folk  -v  certain  kind  of  acts ;  and 


232  EDUCATION. 

then  you  will  have  to  devise  methods  by  which 
parallel  results  shall  be  entailed  on  the  parallel  acts 
D£  your  children.  You  will  daily  be  called  upon  to 
analyze  the  motives  of  juvenile  conduct :  you  must 
distinguish  between  acts  that  are  really  good  and 
those  which,  though  externally  simulating  them, 
proceed  from  inferior  impulses :  while  you  must  be 
ever  on  your  guard  against  the  cruel  mistake  not 
unfrequently  made,  of  translating  neutral  acts  into 
transgressions,  or  ascribing  worse  feelings  than  were 
entertained.  You  must  more  or  less  modify  your 
method  to  suit  the  disposition  of  each  child ;  and 
must  be  prepared  to  make  further  modifications  as 
each  child's  disposition  enters  on  a  new  phase.  Your 
faith  will  often  be  taxed  to  maintain  the  requisite 
perseverance  in  a  course  which  seems  to  produce 
little  or  no  effect.  Especially  if  you  are  dealing 
with  children  who  have  been  wrongly  treated,  you 
nust  be  prepared  for  a  lengthened  trial  of  patience 
before  succeeding  with  better  methods ;  seeing  that 
that  which  is  not  easy  even  where  a  right  state  of 
feeling  has  been  established  from  the  beginning,  be- 
comes doubly  difficult  when  a  wrong  state  of  feeling 
has  to  be  set  right.  Not  only  will  you  have  con- 
stantly to  analyze  the  motives  of  your  children,  but 
you  will  have  to  analyze  vour  owi  motives — to  dia 


MORAL  EDUCATION.  233 

criminate  oetween  those  internal  suggestions  spring- 
ing from  a  true  parental  solicitude,  and  those  which 
spring  from  your  own  selfishness,  from  your  love  of 
ease,  from  your  lust  of  dominion.  And  then,  more 
trying  still,  you  will  have  not  only  to  detect,  but  to 
curb  these  baser  impulses.  In  brief,  you  will  have  to 
carry  on  your  higher  education  at  the  same  time  that 
you  are  educating  your  children.  Intellectually  you 
must  cultivate  to  good  purpose  that  most  complex 
of  subjects — human  nature  and  its  laws,  as  exhibited 
in  your  children,  in  yourself,  and  in  the  world. 
Morally,  you  must  keep  in  constant  exercise  your 
higher  feelings,  and  restrain  your  lower.  It  is  a 
truth  yet  remaining  to  be  recognized,  that  the  last 
stage  in  the  mental  development  of  each  man  and 
woman  is  to  be  reached  only  through  the  proper  dis- 
charge of  the  parental  duties.  And  when  this  truth 
is  recognized,  it  will  be  seen  how  admirable  is  the 
ordination  in  virtue  of  which  human  beings  are  led 
by  their  strongest  affections  to  subject  themselves  to  i 
a  discipline  which  they  would  else  elude. 

While  some  will  probably  regard  this  conception 
of  education  as  it  should  be,  with  doubt  and  dis- 
couragement, others  will,  we  think,  perceive  in  the 
exalted  ideal  which  it  involves,  evidence  of  ita 
truth-  That  it  cannot  be  realized  by  the  impulsive* 


23«  EDUCATION. 

the  unsympathetic,  and  the  short-sighted,  but  de- 
mands the  higher  attributes  of  human  nature,  they 
will  see  to  be  evidence  of  its  fitness  for  the  more 
advanced  states  of  humanity.  Though  it  calls  for 
much  labor  and  self-sacrifice,  they  will  see  that  it 
promises  an  abundant  return  of  happiness,  im> 
mediate  and  remote.  They  will  see  that  while  in  its 
injurious  effects  on  both  parent  and  child  a  bad 
system  is  twice  cursed,  a  good  system  is  twice 
blessed — it  blesses  him  that  trains  and  him  that's 
trained. 

It  will  be  seen  that  we  have  said  nothing  in  this 
Chapter  about  the  transcendental  distinction  between 
right  and  wrong,  of  which  wise  men  know  so  little, 
and  children  nothing.  All  thinkers  are  agreed  that 
we  may  find  the  criterion  of  right  in  the  effect  of 
actions,  if  we  do  not  find  the  rule  there  ;  and  that  it) 
sufficient  for  the  purpose  we  have  had  in  view.  Nor. 
have  we  introduced  the  religious  element.  We  havi, 
confined  our  inquiries  to  a  nearer,  and  a  much  morii 
neglected  field,  though  a  very  important  one.  Quit 
readers  may  sapplement  our  thoughts  in  any  way 
;ney  please  ;  we  are  only  concerned  that  they  shoulej 
be  accepted  as  for  as  they  go* 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION.  236 


OHAPTER  IV. 

PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

EQUALLY  at  the  squire's  table  after  the  with- 
drawal  of  the  ladies,  at  the  farmers'  market-ordinary, 
and  at  the  village  ale-house,  the  topic  which,  after 
the  political  question  of  the  day,  excites  perhaps  the 
most  general  interest,  is  the  management  of  animals. 
Riding  home  from  hunting,  the  conversation  is  pretty 
sure  to  gravitate  toward  horse-breeding,  and  ped- 
igrees, and  comments  on  this  or  that  "good  point; " 
while  a  day  on  the  moors  is  very  unlikely  to  pass 
without  something  being  said  on  the  treatment  of 
dogs.  When  crossing  the  fields  together  from 
church,  the  tenants  of  adjacent  farms  are  apt  to  pass 
from  criticisms  on  the  sermon  to  criticisms  on  the 
weather,  the  crops,  and  the  stock ;  and  thence  to 
slide  into  discussions  on  the  various  kinds  of  fodder 
and  their  feeding  qualities.  Hodge  and  Giles,  after 
comparing  notes  over  their  respective  pig-styes,  show 
by  their  remarks  that  they  have  been  more  or  less 
observant  of  their  masters'  beasts  and  sheep ;  and  of 


236  EDUCATION. 

the  effects  produced  on  them  by  this  or  that  kind  oi 
treatment.  Nor  is  it  only  among  the  rural  popu- 
lation that  the  regulations  of  the  kennel,  the  stable, 
the  cow-shed,  and  the  sheep-pen,  are  favorite  sub- 
jects. In  towns,  too,  the  numerous  artisans  who 
leep  dogs,  the  young  men  who  are  rich  enough  to 
now  and  then  indulge  their  sporting  tendencies,  and 
their  more  staid  seniors  who  talk  over  agricultural 
progress  or  read  Mr.  Mechi's  annual  reports  and  Mr. 
Caird's  letters  to  the  Times,  form,  when  added  to- 
gether, a  large  portion  of  the  inhabitants.  Take  the 
adult  males  throughout  the  kingdom,  and  a  great 
majority  will  be  found  to  show  some  interest  in  the 
breeding,  rearing,  or  training  of  animals,  of  one  kind 
or  other. 

But,  during  after-dinner  conversations,  or  at  othe: 
times  of  like  intercourse,  who  hears  anything  saia 
about  the  rearing  of  children  ?  When  the  country 
gentleman  has  paid  his  daily  visit  to  the  stable,  and 
personally  inspected  the  condition  and  treatment  of 
his  horses ;  when  he  has  glanced  at  his  minor  live 
stock,  and  given  directions  about  them  ;  how  often 
does  he  go  up  to  the  nursery  and  examine  into  its 
dietary,  its  hours,  its  ventilation?  On  his  library 
shelves  may  be  found  White's  "  Farriery,"  Stephen'? 
•*  Book  of  the  Farm,"  Nimro£  **  On  the  Condition  of 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION.  237 

Hunters ; "  and  with  the  contents  of  these  he  is  more 
or  less  familiar  ;  but  how  many  books  has  he  read  on 
the  management  of  infancy  and  childhood?  The 
fattening  properties  of  oil-cake,  the  relative  values 
of  hay  and  chopped  straw,  the  dangers  of  unlimited 
clover,  are  points  on  which  every  landlord,  farmer, 
land  peasant  has  some  knowledge  ;  but  what  proper- 
tion  of  them  know  much  about  the  qualities  of  the 
food  they  give  their  children,  and  its  fitness  to  the 
constitutional  needs  of  growing  boys  and  girls? 
Perhaps  the  business  interests  of  these  classes  will  be 
assigned  as  accounting  for  this  anomaly.  The  expla- 
nation is  inadequate,  however ;  see  that  the  same 
contrast  holds  more  or  less  among  other  classes.  Of 
a  score  of  towns-people  few,  if  any,  would  prove 
ignorant  of  the  fact  that  it  is  undesirable  to  work  a 
horse  soon  after  it  has  eaten  ;  and  yet,  of  this  same 
score,  supposing  them  all  to  be  fathers,  probably  not 
3ne  would  be  found  who  had  considered  whether  the 
time  elapsing  between  his  children's  dinner  and  their 
resumption  of  lessons  was  sufficient.  Indeed,  on 
cross-examination,  nearly  every  man  would  disclose 
the  latent  opinion  that  the  regimen  of  the  nursery 
was  no  concern  of  his.  "  Oh,  I  leave  all  those  things 
co  the  women,"  would  probably  be  the  reply.  And 
in  most  cases  the  tone  and  manner  of  this  reply 


«38  EDUCATION. 

would  convey  the  implication,  that  such  cares  are 

not  consistent  with  masculine  dignity. 

Consider  the  fact  from  any  but  the  conventional 
point  of  view,  and  it  will  seem  strange  that  while 
the  raising  of  first-rate  bullocks  is  an  occupation  on 
which  men  of  education  willingly  bestow  much  time, 
inquiry,  and  thought,  the  bringing  up  of  fine  human 
beings  is  an  occupation  tacitly  voted  unworthy  of 
their  attention.  Mammas  who  have  been  taught 
little  but  languages,  music,  and  accomplishments* 
aided  by  nurses  full  of  antiquated  prejudices,  are 
held  competent  regulators  of  the  food,  clothing,  and 
exercise  of  children.  Meanwhile  the  fathers  read 
books  and  periodicals,  attend  agricultural  meetings, 
try  experiments,  and  engage  in  discussions,  all  with 
the  view  of  discovering  how  to  fatten  prize  pigs! 
Infinite  pains  will  be  taken  to  produce  a  racer  that 
shall  win  the  Derby:  none  to  produce  a  modern 
athlete.  Had  Gulliver  narrated  of  the  Lilliputians 
that  the  men  vied  with  each  other  in  learning  how 
best  to  rear  the  offspring  of  other  creatures,  and 
were  careless  of  learning  how  best  to  rear  their  own 
offspring,  he  would  have  paralleled  any  of  the  other 
absurdities  he  ascribes  to  them. 

The  matter  is  a  serious  one,  however.  Ludicrous 
as  is  the  antithesis,  the  fact  it  expresses  is  not  less 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION.  239 

disastrous.  As  remarks  a  suggestive  writer,  the 
first  requisite  to  success  in  life  is  "  to  be  a  good  an> 
iiaal ; "  and  to  be  a  nation  of  good  animals  is  the 
urst  condition  to  national  prosperity.  Not  only  is  it 
that  the  event  of  a  war  often  turns  on  the  strength 
aM  hardiness  of  soldiers;  but  it  is  that  the  contests 
Oi.  commerce  are  in  part  determined  by  the  bodily 
endurance  of  producers.  Thus  far  we  have  found  no 
reason  to  fear  trials  of  strength  with  other  races  in 
either  of  these  fields.  But  there  are  not  wanting 
signs  that  our  powers  will  presently  be  taxed  to  the 
uttermost.  Already  under  the  keen  competition  of 
modern  life,  the  application  required  of  almost  every 
one  is  such  as  few  can  bear  without  more  or  less 
injury.  Already  thousands  break  down  under  the 
high  pressure  they  are  subject  to.  If  this  pressure 
continues  to  increase,  as  it  seems  likely  to  do,  it  will 
try  severely  all  but  the  soundest  constitution. 
Hence  it  is  becoming  of  especial  importance  that  the 
training  of  children  should  be  so  carried  on,  as  not 
only  to  fit  them  mentally  for  the  struggle  before 
them,  but  also  to  make  them  physically  fit  to  bear 
its  excessive  wear  and  tear. 

Happily  the  matter  is  beginning  to  attract  atten 
tion.  The  writings  of  Mr.  Kingsley  indicate  a  reao* 
fcion  against  over-culture  ;  carried,  as  reactions  usi* 


240  EDUCATION. 

ally  are,  somewhat  too  far.  Occasional  letters  an^ 
leaders  in  the  newspapers  have  shown  an  awakening 
interest  in  physical  training.  And  the  formation  o 
a  school,  significantly  nicknamed  that  of  "  musculai 
Christianity,"  implies  a  growing  opinion  that  our 
present  methods  of  bringing  up  children  do  not 
sufficiently  regard  the  welfare  of  the  body.  The 
topic  is  evidently  ripe  for  discussion. 

To  conform  the  regimen  of  the  nursery  and  the 
school  to  the  established  truths  of  modern  science — 
this  is  the  desideratum.  It  is  time  that  the  benefits 
which  our  sheep  and  oxen  have  for  years  past  de- 
rived from  the  investigations  of  the  laboratory, 
should  be  participated  in  by  our  children.  Without 
calling  in  question  the  great  importance  of  horse 
training  and  pig-feeding,  we  would  suggest  that,  as 
the  rearing  of  well-grown  men  and  women  is  also  of 
some  moment,  the  conclusions  indicated  by  theory, 
and  endorsed  by  practice,  ought  to  be  acted  on  in 
the  last  case  as  in  the  first.  Probably  not  a  few  will 
be  startled — perhaps  offended — by  this  collocation 
of  ideas.  But  it  is  a  fact  not  to  be  disputed,  and  tc 
which  we  had  best  reconcile  ourselves,  that  man  is 
subject  to  the  same  organic  laws  as  inferior  creatures. 
No  anatomist,  no  physiologist,  no  chemist,  will  for  a 
•aoment  hesitate  to  assert,  that  the  general  prir-cipiea 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION.  241 

which  rule  over  the  vital  processes  in  animals  equally 
rule  over  the  vital  processes  in  man.  And  a  candid 
admission  of  this  fact  is  not  without  its  reward-, 
namely,  that  the  truths  established  by  observation 
and  experiment  on  brutes,  become  more  or  less 
available  for  human  guidance.  Rudimentary  as  is 
the  Science  of  Life,  it  has  already  attained  to  certain 
fundamental  principles  underlying  the  development 
of  all  organisms,  the  human  included.  That  which 
has  now  to  be  done,  and  that  which  we  shall  endeavor 
in  some  measure  to  do,  is  to  show  the  bearing  of  these 
fundamental  principles  upon  the  physical  training  of 
childhood  and  youth. 

The  rhythmical  tendency  which  is  traceable  in  all 
departments  of  social  life — which  is  illustrated  in  the 
access  of  despotism  after  revolution,  or,  among  our- 
selves, in  the  alternation  of  reforming  epochs  and 
conservative  epochs — which,  after  a  dissolute  age, 
brings  an  age  of  asceticism,  and  conversely — which, 
in  commerce,  produces  the  regularly  recurring  infla- 
tions and  panics — which  carries  the  devotees  of  fashion 
from  one  absurd  extreme  to  the  opposite  one  ; — this 
•hythmical  tendency  affects  also  our  table-habits, 
and  by  implication,  the  dietary  of  the  young.  After 
ft  period  distinguished  by  hard  drinking  and  hard 
12 


245!  EDUCATION. 

eating,  has  come  a  period  of  comparative  sobriety-, 
which,  in  teetotalism  and  vegetarianism,  exhibits 
extreme  forms  of  its  protest  against  the  riotous  Jiv- 
ing of  the  past.  And  along  with  this  change  in  the 
regimen  of  adults,  has  come  a  parallel  change  in  the 
regimen  for  boys  and  girls.  In  past  generations,  the 
belief  was,  that  the  more  a  child  could  be  induced  to 
eat,  the  better ;  and  even  now,  among  farmers  and 
in  remote  districts,  where  traditional  ideas  most 
linger,  parents  may  be  found  who  tempt  their  chil- 
dren to  gorge  themselves.  But  among  the  educated 
classes,  who  chiefly  display  this  reaction  toward 
abstemiousness,  there  may  be  seen  a  decided  lean- 
ing to  the  under-feeding,  rather  than  the  over- 
feeding, of  children.  Indeed  their  disgust  for  by- 
gone animalism  is  more  clearly  shown  in  the 
treatment  of  their  offspring  than  in  the  treatment 
of  themselves;  seeing  that  while  their  disguised 
asceticism  is,  in  so  far  as  their  personal  conduct  is 
concerned,  kept  in  check  by  their  appetites,  it  has 
full  play  in  legislating  for  juveniles. 

That  over-feeding  and  underfeeding  are  both  bad, 
is  a  truism.  Of  the  two,  however,  the  last  is  the 
wrorst.  As  writes  a  high  authority,  "  the  effects  of 
casual  repletion  are  less  prejudicial,  and  more  easily 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATIO*.  243 

corrected,  than  those  of  inanition."*  Add  to  which, 
that  where  there  has  been  no  injudicious  interference, 
repletion  will  seldom  occur.  "Excess  is  the  vice 
rather  of  adults  than  of  the  young,  who  are  rarelv 
either  gourmands  or  epicures,  unless  through  t,v 
fault  of  those  who  rear  them."  f  This  system  of  119. 
striction  which  many  parents  think  so  necessary,  is 
based  upon  very  inadequate  observation,  and  very 
erroneous  reasoning.  There  is  an  over-legislation  in 
the  nursery,  as  well  as  an  over-legislation  in  the 
State  ;  and  one  of  the  most  injurious  forms  of  it  is 
this  limitation  in  the  quantity  of  food. 

"  But  are  children  to  be  allowed  to  surfeit  them- 
selves ?  Shall  they  be  suffered  to  take  their  fill  of 
dainties  and  make  themselves  ill,  as  they  certainly 
will  do  ?  "  As  thus  put,  the  question  admits  of  but 
one  reply.  But  as  thus  put,  it  assumes  the  point  at 
issue.  We  contend  that,  as  appetite  is  a  good  guide 
to  all  the  lower  creation — as  it  is  a  good  guide  to  the 
infant — as  it  is  a  good  guide  to  the  invalid — as  it  is 
a  good  guide  to  the  differently-placed  races  of  men, 
and  as  it  is  a  good  guide  for  every  adult  who  leads  a 
healthful  life  ;  it  may  safely  be  inferred  that  it  is  2 
good  guide  for  childhood.  It  would  be  strange  ii* 
deed  were  it  here  alone  untrustworthy. 

*"  Cyclopaedia  of  Practical  Medicine." 


844  EDUCATION. 

Probably  not  a  few  will  read  this  reply  with  some 
impatience ;  being  able,  as  they  think,  to  cite  facts 
totally  at  variance  with  it.  It  will  appear  absurd  if 
we  deny  the  relevancy  of  these  facts  ;  and  yet  the 
paradox  is  quite  defensible.  The  truth  is,  that  the 
instances  of  excess  which  such  persons  have  m  mind 
are  usually  the  consequences  of  the  restrictive  system 
they  seem  to  justify.  They  are  the  sensual  reactions 
caused  by  a  more  or  less  ascetic  regimen.  They 
illustrate  on  a  small  scale  that  commonly  remarked 
fact,  that  those  who  during  youth  have  been  subject 
to  the  most  rigorous  discipline,  are  apt  afterward  to 
rush  into  the  wildest  extravagances.  They  are  anal- 
ogous to  those  frightful  phenomena,  once  not  un- 
common in  convents,  where  nuns  suddenly  lapsed 
from  the  extremest  austerities  into  an  almost  demo 
niac  wickedness.  They  simply  exhibit  the  uncou- 
trollable  vehemence  of  a  long-denied  desire.  Con- 
sider the  ordinary  tastes  and  the  ordinary  treatment 
of  children.  The  love  of  sweets  is  conspicuous  and 
almost  universal  among  them.  Probably  ninety-nine 
people  in  a  hundred,  presume  that  there  is  nothing 
more  in  this  than  gratification  of  the  palate ;  anc 
that,  in  common  with  other  sensual  desires,  it  should 
be  discouraged.  The  physiologist,  however,  whose 
discoveries  lead  him  to  an  ever-increasing  revereno* 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION.  248 

for  the  arrangements  of  things,  will  suspect  that 
there  is  something  more  in  this  love  of  sweets  tha^ 
the  current  hypothesis  supposes;  and  a  little  inquiry 
confirms  the  suspicion.  Any  work  on  organic  chem- 
istry shows  that  sugar  plays  an  important  part  in  the 
vital  processes.  Both  saccharine  and  fatty  matters 
are  eventually  oxidized  in  the  body  ;  and  there  is  an 
accompanying  evolution  of  heat.  Sugar  is  the  form 
to  which  sundry  other  compounds  have  to  be  re- 
duced before  they  are  available  as  heat-making  food  ; 
and  this  formation  of  sugar  is  carried  on  in  the  body. 
Not  only  is  starch  changed  into  sugar  in  the  course 
of  digestion,  but  it  has  been  proved  by  M.  Claude 
Bernard  that  the  liver  is  a  factory  in  which  other 
constituents  of  food  are  transformed  into  sugar. 
Now,  when  to  the  fact  that  children  have  a  marked 
desire  for  this  valuable  heat-food,  we  join  the  fact 
that  the}'  have  usually  a  marked  dislike  to  that  food 
whicli  gives  out  the  greatest  amount  of  heat  during 
its  oxidation  (namely,  fat,)  we  shall  see  strong  reason 
for  thinking  that  excess  of  the  one  compensates  for 
defect  of  the  other — that  the  organism  demamls  more 
sugar  because  it  cannot  deal  with  much  fat.  Again, 
children  are  usually  very  fond  of  vegetable  acids. 
Fruits  of  all  kinds  are  their  delight ;  and,  in  the  ab- 
sence of  anything  better,  they  will  devour  unripe 


246  EDUCATION. 

.  gooseberries  and  the  sourest  of  crabs.     Now,  not 

•  mly  are  vegetable  acids,  in  common  with  mineral 
!  jnes,  very  good  tonics,  and  beneficial  as  such  when 

taken  in  moderation  ;  but  they  have,  when  adminis- 
tered in  their  natural  forms,  other  advantages. 
**Hipe  fruit,"  says  Dr.  Andrew  Combe,  "  is  more 
freely  given  on  the  Continent  than  in  this  country  ; 
and,  particularly  when  the  bowels  act  imperfectly,  it 
is  often  very  useful."  See,  then,  the  discord  between 
the  instinctive  wants  of  children  and  their  habitual 
treatment.  Here  are  two  dominant  desires,  which 
there  is  good  reason  to  believe  express  certain  needs 
of  the  juvenile  constitution  ;  and  not  only  are  they 
ignored  in  the  nursery  regimen,  but  there  is  a  gen- 
eral tendency  to  forbid  the  gratification  of  them. 
Bread-and-milk  in  the  morning,  tea  and  bread-and- 
butter  at  night,  or  some  dietary  equally  insipid,  is 

•  igidly  adhered  to ;  and  any  ministration  to  the  r.*L 
ate  is  thought  not  only  needless  but  wrong.     What 
'is  the  necessary  consequence  ?    When,  on  fete-days 
there  is  an  unlimited  access  to  good  things-  when  a 
gift  of  pocket-money  brings  the  contents  of  the  con- 
fectioner's window  within  reach,  or  when  by  some  ac- 
cident  the  free  run   of  a  fruit-garden  is  obtained  ; 
then  the  long-denio<«,  and  therefore  intense,  desire* 
lead  to  great  excesses.     There  is  an  impromptu  car 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION.  241 

nival,  caused  not  only  by  the  release  from  past  re 
gtraints,  but  also  by  the  consciousness  that  a  long 
Lent  will  begin  on  the  morrow.  And  then,  when 
the  evils  of  repletion  display  themselves,  it  is  argued 
that  children  must  not  be  K  ft  to  the  guidance  of 
their  appetites!  These  disastrous  results  of  artifi 
cial  restrictions,  are  themselves  cited  as  proving  the 
need  for  further  restrictions  !  We  contend,  there- 
fore, that  the  reasoning  commonly  used  to  justify 
this  system  of  interference  is  vicious.  We  contend 
that,  were  children  allowed  daily  to  partake  of  these 
more  sapid  edibles,  for  which  there  is  a  physiological 
requirement,  they  would  rarely  exceed,  as  they  now 
mostly  do  when  they  have  the  opportunity:  were 
fruit,  as  Dr.  Combe  recommends,  "  to  constitute  a 
part  of  the  regular  food  "  (given,  as  he  advises,  not 
between  meals,  but  along  with  them),  there  would 
be  none  of  that  craving  which  prompts  the  devour- 
ing of  such  fruits  as  crabs  and  sloes.  And  similarly 
in  other  cases. 

Not  only  is  it  that  the  a  priori  reasons  for  trusting 
the  appetites  of  children  are  so  strong ;  and  that 
the  reasons  assigned  for  distrusting  them  are  invalid; 
but  it  is  chat  no  other  guidance  is  worthy  of  any 
confidence.  What  is  the  value  of  this  parental 
judgment,  set  up  as  au  alternative  regulator  ?  Whem 


248  EDUCATION. 

to  "  Oliver  asking  for  more,"  the  mamma  or  the  gov 
jrness  replies  in  the  negative,  on  what  data  does  she 
proceed?  She  thinks  he  has  had  enough.  But 
where  are  her  grounds  for  so  thinking?  Has  she 
some  secret  understanding  with  the  boy's  stomach — 
some  clairvoyant  power  enabling  her  to  discern  the 
needs  of  his  body  ?  If  not,  how  can  she  safely  de- 
cide ?  Does  she  not  know  that  the  demand  of  the 
system  for  food  is  determined  by  numerous  and  in- 
volved causes — varies  with  the  temperature,  with  the 
hygrometric  state  of  the  air,  with  the  electric  state 
of  the  air,  varies  also  according  to  the  exercise  taken, 
according  to  the  kind  and  quality  of  food  eaten  at 
the  last  meal,  and  according  to  the  rapidity  with 
which  the  last  meal  was  digested  ?  How  can  she 
calculate  the  result  of  such  a  combination  of 
causes  ?  As  we  heard  said  by  the  father  of  a  five- 
years-old  boy,  who  stands  a  head  taller  than  most  of 
his  age,  and  is  proportionately  robust,  rosy,  and  a<y 
tive : — "  I  can  see  no  artificial  standard  by  whinh  to 
mete  out  his  food.  If  I  say,  '  this  much  is  enough, 
it  is  a  mere  guess  ;  and  the  guess  is  as  likely  to  be 
wrong  as  right.  Consequently,  having  no  faith  in 
guesses,  I  let  him  eat  his  fill."  And  certainly,  any 
one  judging  of  his  policy  by  its  effects,  would  be 
constrained  to  admit  its  wisdom.  In  truth,  this 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION.  24» 

confidence,  with  which  most  parents  take  upon  them- 
selves to  legislate  for  the  stomachs  of  their  children, 
proves  their  unacquaintance  with  the  principles  of 
physiology  :  if  they  knew  more,  they  would  be  more 
modest.  "  The  pride  of  science  is  humble  when  com- 
pared with  the  pride  of  ignorance."  If  any  one 
would  learn  how  little  faith  is  to  be  placed  in  human 
judgments,  and  how  much  in  the  pre-established 
arrangements  of  things,  let  him  compare  the  rash- 
ness of  the  inexperienced  physician  with  the  cautio  i 
of  the  most  advanced ;  or  let  him  dip  into  Sir  John 
Forbes'  work,  "  On  Nature  and  Art  in  the  Cure  of 
Disease ; "  and  he  will  then  see  that,  in  proportion 
as  men  gain  a  greater  knowledge  of  the  laws  of 
life,  they  come  to  have  less  confidence  in  themselves, 
and  more  in  Nature. 

Turning  from  the  question  of  quantity  of  food  to 
that  of  quality,  we  may  discern  the  same  ascetic  ten-- 
den cy.  Not  simply  a  more  or  less  restricted  diet, 
but  a  comparatively  low  diet,  is  thought  proper  for 
children.  The  current  opinion  is,  that  they  should 
have  but  little  animal  food.  Among  the  less  wealthy 
classes,  economy  seems  to  have  dictated  this  opinion 
— the  wish  has  been  father  to  the  thought.  Parents 
not  affording  to  buy  much  meat,  and  liking  meat 
themselves,  answer  the  petitions  of  juveniles  with— 


250  EDUCATION. 

"Meat  is  not  good  for  little  boys  and  girls ;"  anil 
this,  at  first,  probably  nothing  but  a  convenient  ex- 
cuse, has  by  repetition  grown  into  an  article  of  faith. 
While  the  classes  with  whom  cost  is  not  a  considera- 
tion, have  been  swayed  partly  by  the  example  of  the 
majority,  partly  by  the  influence  of  nurses  drawn 
from  the  lower  classes,  and  in  some  measure  by 
the  reaction  against  past  animalism. 

If,  however,  we  inquire  for  the  basis  of  this 
opinion,  we  find  little  or  none.  It  is  a  dogma  re- 
peated and  received  without  proof,  like  that  which, 
for  thousands  of  years,  insisted  on  the  necessity  of 
swaddling-clothes.  It  may  indeed  be  true  that,  to 
the  young  child's  stomach,  not  yet  endowed  with 
much  muscular  power,  meat,  which  requires  consider- 
able trituration  before  it  can  be  made  into  chyme,  is 
an  unfit  aliment.  But  this  objection  does  not  tell 
against  animal  food  from  which  the  fibrous  part  has 
been  extracted;  nor  does  it  apply  when,  after  the 
lapse  of  two  or  three  years,  considerable  muscular 
vigor  has  been  acquired.  And  while  the  evidence  in 
support  of  this  dogma,  partially  valid  in  the  case  of 
very  young  children,  is  not  valid  in  the  case  of  older 
children,  who  are,  nevertheless,  ordinarily  treated  in 
conformity  with  the  dogma,  the  adverse  evidence  is 
abundant  and  conclusive  The  verdict  of  science  is 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION.  251 

exactly  opposite  to  the  popular  opinion.  We  have 
put  the  question  to  two  of  our  leading  physicians, 
and  to  several  of  the  most  distinguished  physiolo- 
gists, and  they  uniformly  agree  in  the  conclusion, 
that  children  should  have  a  diet  not  less  nutritive, 
but,  if  anything,  more  nutritive  than  that  of  adults. 

The  grounds  for  this  conclusion  are  obvious,  and 
the  reasoning  simple.  It  needs  but  to  compare  the 
vital  processes  of  a  man  with  those  of  a  boy,  to  see 
at  once  that  the  demand  for  sustenance  is  relatively 
greater  in  the  boy  than  in  the  man.  What  are  the 
ends  for  which  a  man  requires  food  ?  Each  day  his 
body  undergoes  more  or  less  wear — wear  through 
muscular  exertion,  wear  of  the  nervous  system 
through  mental  actions,  wear  of  the  viscera  in  carry- 
ing on  the  functions  of  life;  and  the  tissue  thus 
wasted  has  to  be  renewed.  Each  day,  too,  by  per- 
petual radiation,  his  body  loses  a  large  amount  of 
he^t ;  and  as,  for  the  continuance  of  the  vital  actions, 
ihe  temperature  of  the  body  must  be  maintained, 
this  loss  has  to  be  compensated  by  a  constant  pro- 
duction of  heat :  to  which  end  certain  constituents 
of  the  food  are  unceasingly  undergoing  oxidation. 
To  make  up  for  the  day's  waste,  arid  to  supply  fuel 
for  the  day's  expenditure  of  heat,  are,  then,  the  sole 
purposes  for  which  the  adult  requires  food.  Gon>- 


262  EDUCATION. 

sider,  now  the  case  of  the  boy.  He,  too,  wastes  the 
substance  of  his  body  by  action  ;  and  it  needs  but  to 
note  his  restless  activity  to  see  that,  in  proportion 
to  his  bulk,  he  probably  wastes  as  much  as  a  man. 
He,  too,  loses  heat  by  radiation  ;  and,  as  his  body  ex- 
poses a  greater  surface  in  proportion  to  its  mass  than 
does  that  of  a  man,  and  therefore  loses  heat  more 
rapidly,  the  quantity  of  heat-food  he  requires  is, 
bulk  for  bulk,  greater  than  that  required  by  a  man. 
So  that  even  had  the  boy  no  other  vital  processes  to 
carry  on  than  the  man  has,  he  would  need,  relatively 
to  his  size,  a  some  what  larger  supply  of  nutriment. 
But,  besides  repairing  his  body  and  maintaining  its 
heat,  the  boy  has  to  make  new  tissue  — to  grow. 
After  waste  and  thermal  loss  have  been  provided 
for,  such  surplus  of  nutriment  as  remains,  goes  to 
the  further  building  up  of  the  frame  ;  and  only  in 
virtue  of  this  surplus  is  normal  growth  possible — the 
growth  that  sometimes  takes  place  in  the  absence  of 
such  surplus,  causing  a  manifest  prostration  conse- 
quent upon  defective  repair.  How  peremptory  is 
the  demand  of  the  unfolding  organism  for  materials, 
is  seen  alike  in  that  "  school-boy  hunger,"  which 
after-life  rarely  parallels  in  intensity,  and  in  the 
comparatively  quick  return  of  appetite.  And  if 
there  needs  further  evidence  of  this  extra-necessity 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION.  253 

for  nutriment,  we  have  it  in  the  fact  that,  during  the 
famines  following  shipwrecks  and  other  disasters,  thf 
children  are  the  first  to  die. 

This  relatively  greater  need  for  nutriment  being 
admitted,  as  it  must  perforce  be,  the  question  that 
remains  is — shall  we  meet  it  by  giving  an  excessive 
quantity  of  what  may  be  called  dilute  food,  or  a 
nore  moderate  quantity  of  concentrated  food  ?  The 
nutriment  obtainable  from  a  given  weight  of  meat  is 
obtainable  only  from  a  larger  weight  of  bread,  or 
from  a  still  larger  weight  of  potatoes,  and  so  on.  To 
fulfil  the  requirement,  the  quantity  must  be  increased 
as  the  iiutritiveness  is  diminished.  Shall  we,  then, 
respond  to  the  extra  wants  of  the  growing  child  by 
giving  an  adequate  quantity  of  food  as  good  as  that 
of  adults  ?  Or,  regardless  of  the  fact  that  its  stom- 
ach has  to  dispose  of  a  relatively  larger  quantity 
even  of  this  good  food,  shall  we  further  tax  it  bv 
giving  an  inferior  food  in  still  greater  quantity  ? 

The  answer  is  tolerably  obvious.  The  more  the 
labor  of  digestion  can  be  economized,  the  more  en- 
ergy is  left  for  the  purposes  of  growth  and  action. 
The  functions  of  the  stomach  and  intestines  cannot 
be  performed  without  a  large  supply  of  blood  and 
nervous  power;  and  in  the  comparative  lassitude 
that  follows  a  hearty  meal,  every  adult  has  proof 


t64  EDUCATION. 

that  this  supply  of  blood  and  nervous  power  is  at 
the  expense  of  the  system  at  large.  If  the  requisite 
nutriment  is  furnished  by  a  great  quantity  of  innu- 
tritious  food,  more  work  is  entailed  on  the  viscera 
than  when  it  is  furnished  b}^  a  moderate  quantity  of 
nutritious  food.  This  extra  work  is  so  much  sheer 
loss — a  loss  which  in  children  shows  itself  either  in 
diminished  energy,  or  in  smaller  growth,  or  in  both. 
The  inference  is,  then,  that  they  should  have  a  diet 
which  combines,  as  much  as  possible,  nutritiveness 
and  digestibility. 

It  is  doubtless  true  that  boys  and  girls  may  be 
brought  up  upon  an  exclusively,  or  almost  exclu- 
sively, vegetable  diet.  Among  the  upper  classes  are 
to  be  found  children  to  whom  comparatively  little 
meat  is  given  ;  and,  who,  nevertheless,  grow  and  ap- 
pear in  good  health.  Animal  food  is  scarcely  tasted 
by  the  offspring  of  laboring  people ;  and  yet  they 
reach  a  healthy  maturity.  But  these  seemingly  ad- 
verse facts  have  by  no  means  the  weight  commonly 
supposed.  In  the  first  place,  it  does  not  follow  that 
those  who  in  early  years  flourished  on  bread  and  po- 
tatoes, will  eventually  reach  a  fine  development; 
and  a  comparison  between  the  agricultural  laborers 
and  the  gentry,  in  England,  or  between  the  *niddle 
and  lower  classes  in  France,  is  by  no  means  in  favoi 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION.  2M 

•f  vegetable  feeders.  In  the  second  place,  the  ques- 
tion is  not  only  a  question  of  bulky  but  also  a  ques- 
tion of  quality.  A  soft,  flabby  flesh  makes  as  good  a 
show  as  a  firm  one ;  but  though  to  the  careless  eye, 
a  child  of  full,  flaccid  tissue  may  appear  the  equal  of 
one  whose  fibres  are  well  toned,  a  trial  of  strength 
wiJl  prove  the  difference.  Obesity  in  adults  is  oitiO 
a  sign  of  feebleness.  Men  lose  weight  in  training 
And  hence  the  appearance  of  these  low-fed  children 
is  by  no  means  conclusive.  In  the  third  place,  not 
only  size,  but  energy  has  to  be  considered.  Between 
children  of  the  meat-eating  classes  and  those  of  the 
bread-and-potato-eating  classes,  there  is  a  marked 
contrast  in  this  respect.  Both  in  mental  and  physi- 
cal vivacity  the  low-fed  peasant-bo}'  is  greatly  in- 
ferior to  the  better-fed  son  of  a  gentleman. 

If  we  compare  different  classes  of  anLnals,  or 
different  races  of  men,  or  the  same  animals  or  men 
when  differently  fed,  we  find  still  more  distinct 
proof  that  ike  degree  of  energy  essentially  depends  on 
the  nutritiveness  of  the  food. 

In  a  cow,  subsisting  on  so  innutritive  a  food  at 
grass,  we  see  that  the  immense  quantity  required  to 
be  ?aten  necessitates  an  enormous  digestive  system; 
that  the  limbs,  small  in  comparison  with  the  body, 
we  burdened  t<y  its  weight ;  that  in  carrying  about 


266  EDUCATION. 

this  heavy  body  and  digesting  this  excessive  qua* 
tity  of  food,  a  great  amount  of  force  is  expended  \ 
and  that,  having  but  little  energy  remaining,  the 
creature  is  sluggish.  Compare  with  the  cow  a  horse 
— an  animal  of  nearly  allied  structure,  but  adapted 
to  a  more  concentrated  food.  Here  we  see  that  thf 
body,  and  more  especially  its  abdominal  region 
bears  a  much  smaller  ratio  to  the  limbs ;  that  the 
powers  are  not  taxed  by  the  support  of  such  massive 
viscera,  nor  the  digestion  of  so  bulky  a  food ;  and 
that,  as  a  consequence,  there  is  great  locomotive 
energy  and  considerable  vivacity.  If,  again,  we 
contrast  the  stolid  inactivity  of  the  graminivorous 
sheep  with  the  liveliness  of  the  dog,  subsisting  upon 
flesh  or  farinaceous  food,  or  a  mixture  of  the  two 
we  see  a  difference  similar  in  kind,  but  still  greater 
in  degree.  And  after  walking  through  the  Zoolog- 
ical Gardens,  and  noting  the  restlessness  with  which 
the  carnivorous  animals  pace  up  and  down  their 
cages,  it  needs  but  to  remember  that  none  of  the 
herbivorous  animals  habitually  display  this  super- 
fluous energy,  to  see  how  clear  is  the  relation  be 
tween  concentration  of  food  and  degree  of  activity. 
That  these  differences  are  not  directly  consequent 
upon  differences  of  constitution,  as  some  may  argue? 
tut  are  directly  consequent  upon  differences  in  the 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION.  25? 

food  which  the  creatures  are  constituted  to  subsist 
on;  is  proved  by  the  fact,  that  they  are  observable 
between  different  divisions  of  the  same  species. 
Take  the  case  of  mankind.  The  Australians,  Bush- 
men, and  others  of  the  lowest  savages  who  live  on 
roots  and  berries,  varied  by  larvae  of  insects  and  the 
like  meagre  fare,  are  comparatively  puny  in  stature, 
have  large  abdomens,  soft  and  undeveloped  muscles, 
and  are  quite  unable  to  cope  with  Europeans,  either 
in  a  struggle  or  in  prolonged  exertion.  Count  up 
the  wild  races  wrho  are  well  grown,  strong  and 
active,  as  the  Kaffirs,  North-American  Indians,  and 
Patagonians,  and  you  find  them  large  consumers  of 
flesh.  The  ill-fed  Hindoo  goes  down  before  the 
Englishman  fed  on  more  nutritive  food;  to  whom 
he  is  as  inferior  in  mental  as  in  physical  energy. 
And  generally,  we  think,  the  history  of  the  world 
shows  that  the  well-fed  races  have  been  the  energetic 
nnd  dominant  races. 

Still  stronger,  however,  becomes  the  argument, 
when  we  find  that  the  same  individual  animal  be- 
comes capable  of  more  or  less  exertion  according  as 
its  food  is  more  or  less  nutritions.  This  has  been 
clearly  demonstrated  in  the  case  of  the  horse. 
Though  flesh  may  be  gained  by  a  grazing  horse, 
strength  is  lost;  as  putting  him  to  hard  work 


868  EDUCATION. 

proves  "The  consequence  of  turning  horses  ont 
to  grass  is  relaxation  of  the  muscular  system. ' 
"  Grass  is  a  very  good  preparation  for  a  bullock  for 
Smithfield  market,  but  a  very  bad  one  for  a  hunter.' 
It  was  well  known  of  old  that,  after  passing  the 
summer  months  in  the  fields,  hunters  required  some 
months  of  stable-feeding  before  becoming  able  to 
follow  the  hounds ;  and  that  they  did  not  get  into 
good  condition  until  the  beginning  of  the  next 
spring.  And  the  modern  practice  is  that  insisted  on 
by  Mr.  Apperley — "  Never  to  give  a  hunter  what  is 
called  *  a  summer's  run  at  grass,'  and,  except  under 
particular  and  very  favorable  circumstances,  never 
to  turn  him  out  at  all."  That  is  to  say,  never  give 
him  poor  food :  great  energy  and  endurance  are  to 
be  obtained  only  by  the  continuous  use  of  very 
nutritive  food.  So  true  is  this  that,  as  proved  by 
Mr.  Apperley,  prolonged  high-feeding  will  enable  a 
middling  horse  to  equal,  in  his  performances,  a  first- 
rate  horse  fed  in  the  ordinary  way.  To  which  vari- 
ous evidences  add  the  familiar  fact  that,  when  a 
horse  is  required  to  do  double  duty,  it  is  the  practice 
to  give  him  beans — a  food  containing  a  laiger  pro- 
portion of  nitrogenous,  or  flesh-making  material 
than  his  habitual  oats. 
Once  more,  in  the  case  of  individual  men  the 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION.  259 

truth  has  been  illustrated  with  equal,  or  still  greater, 
clearness.  We  do  not  refer  to  men  in  training  for 
feats  of  strength,  whose  regimen,  however,  thor- 
oughly conforms  to  the  doctrine.  We  refer  to  the 
experience  of  railway  contractors  and  their  laborers. 
It  has  been  for  years  past  a  well-established  fact 
that  the  English  navvy,  eating  largely  of  flesh,  is  fai: 
more  efficient  than  a  Continental  navvy  living  on  a 
less  nutritive  food:  so  much  more  efficient,  that 
English  contractors  for  Continental  railways  have 
habitually  taken  their  laborers  with  them.  That 
difference  of  diet  and  not  difference  of  race  caused 
this  superiority,  has  been  of  late  distinctly  shown. 
For  it  has  turned  out,  that  when  the  Continental 
navvies  live  in  the  same  style  as  their  English  com- 
petitors, they  presently  rise,  more  or  less  nearly,  to 
a  par  with  them  in  efficiency.  To  which  fact  let  us 
here  add  the  converse  one,  to  which  we  can  give 
personal  testimony  based  upon  six  months'  experi- 
ence of  vegetarianism,  that  abstinence  from  meat 
entails  diminished  energy  of  both  body  and  mind. 

Do  not  these  various  evidences  distinctly  endorse 
our  argument  respecting  the  feeding  of  children! 
i>T  they  not  imply  that,  even  supposing  the  same 
stature  and  bulk  to  be  attained  on  an  in  nutritive 
as  on  a  nutritive  diet,  the  quality  of  tissue  is  greatly 


860  EDUCATION. 

inferior?  Do  they  not  establish  the  position 
where  energy  as  well  as  growth  has  to  be  maintained, 
it  can  only  be  done  by  high  feeding  ?  Do  they  not 
confirm  the  a  priori  conclusion  that,  though  a  child 
of  whom  little  is  expected  in  the  way  of  bodily  or 
mental  activity,  may  thrive  tolerably  well  on  farina- 
ceous substances,  a  child  who  is  daily  required,  not 
only  to  form  the  due  amount  of  new  tissue,  but  to 
supply  the  waste  consequent  on  great  muscular  ac- 
tion, and  the  further  waste  consequent  on  hard  exer- 
cise of  brain,  must  live  on  substances  containing  a 
larger  ratio  of  nutritive  matter  ?  And  is  it  not  an 
obvious  corollary,  that  denial  of  this  better  food  will 
be  at  the  expense  either  of  growth,  or  of  bodily  ac- 
tivity, or  of  mental  activity ;  as  constitution  and  cir- 
cumstances may  determine?  We  believe  no  logical 
intellect  will  question  it.  To  think  otherwise  is  to 
entertain  in  a  disguised  form  the  old  fallacy  of  the 
perpetual-motion  schemers — that  it  is  possible  to  get 
power  out  of  nothing. 

Before  leaving  the  question  of  food,  a  few  word.s 
must  be  said  on  another  requisite — variety.  In  this 
respect  the  dietary  of  the  young  is  very  faulty  If 
not,  like  our  soldiers,  condemned  to  "  twenty  yea>-s 
of  boiled  beef,"  our  children  have  mostly  to  bear  i 
monotony  which,  though  less  extreme  and  less  last- 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION.  961 

,  is  quite  as  clearly  at  variance  with  the  laws  of 


health.  At  dinner,  it  is  true,  they  usually  have  food 
that  is  more  or  less  mixed,  and  that  is  changed  day 
by  day.  But  week  after  week,  month  after  month, 
year  after  year,  comes  the  same  breakfast  of  bread- 
wnd-milk,  or,  it  may  be,  oatmeal  porridge.  And 
wth  like  persistence  the  day  is  closed,  perhaps  with 
a  second  edition  of  the  bread-and-milk,  perhaps  with 
t*a  and  bread-and-butter. 

This  practice  is  opposed  to  the  dictates  of  physi- 
ology. The  satiety  produced  by  an  often-repeated 
dish,  and  the  gratification  caused  by  one  long  a 
stranger  to  the  palate,  are  not  meaningless,  as  many 
carelessly  assume  ;  but  they  are  the  incentives  to  a 
wholesome  diversity  of  diet.  It  is  a  fact,  established 
by  numerous  experiments,  that  there  is  scarcely  any 
one  food,  however  good,  which  supplies  in  due  pro- 
portions or  right  forms  all  the  elements  required  for 
carrying  on  the  vital  processes  in  a  normal  manner: 
from  whence  it  is  to  be  inferred  that  frequent  change 
of  food  is  desirable  to  balance  the  supply  of  all  the 
elements.  It  is  a  further  fact,  well  known  to  physi- 
ologists, that  the  enjoyment  given  1  y  a  much-liked 
food  is  a  nervous  stimulus,  which,  by  increasing  the 
action  of  the  heart  and  so  propelling  the  blood  with 
increased  vigor,  aids  in  the  subsequent  digestion. 


262  EDUCATION. 

And  these  truths  are  in  harmony  with  the  maximt 
of  modern  cattle-feeding,  which  dictate  a  rotation  of 
diet. 

Not  only,  however,  is  periodic  change  of  food  very 
desirable ;  but,  for  the  same  reasons,  it  is  very 
desirable  that  a  mixture  of  food  should  be  taken  at 
each  meal.  The  better  balance  of  ingredients,  and 
the  greater  nervous  stimulation,  are  advantages 
which  hold  here  as  before.  If  facts  are  asked  for, 
we  may  name  as  one,  the  comparative  ease  with 
which  the  stomach  disposes  of  a  Frenth  dinner* 
enormous  in  quantity  but  extremely  varied  in 
material.  Few  will  contend  that  an  equai  weight  of 
one  kind  of  food,  however  well  cooked,  could  be 
digested  with  as  much  facility.  If  any  deuire  further 
facts,  they  may  find  them  in  every  modern  book  on 
the  management  of  animals.  Animals  thrive  best 
when  each  meal  is  made  up  of  several  tl1  ings.  And 
indeed,  among  men  of  science  the  truth  hwsbeen  long 
ago  established.  The  experiments  of  Goss  and 
Stark  "  afford  the  most  decisive  proof  of  the  ad. 
vantage,  or  rather  the  necessity,  of  a  mixture  of 
substances,  in  order  to  prod  ice  tha  con  pound 
which  is  the  best  adapted  for  the  acvion  of  tht 
stomach."* 

*  "  Cyclopaedia  of  Anatomy  and 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION.  263 

Should  any  object,  as  probably  many  will,  that  a 
rotating  dietary  for  children,  and  one  which  also 
requires  a  mixture  of  food  at  each  meal,  would  en* 
tail  too  miich  trouble  ;  we  reply,  that  no  trouble  is 
thought  too  great  which  conduces  to  the  mental 
development  of  children,  and  that  for  their  future 
welfare,  good  bodily  development  is  equally  import- 
ant.  Moreover,  it  seems  alike  sad  and  strange  that 
a  trouble  which  is  cheerfully  taken  in  the  fattening 
of  pigs,  should  be  thought  too  great  in  the  rearing  of 
children. 

One  more  paragraph,  with  the  view  of  warning 
those  who  n?ay  propose  to  adopt  the  regimen  in- 
dicated. The  change  must  not  be  made  suddenly ; 
for  continued  low-feeling  so  enfeebles  the  system,  as 
to  disable  it  from  at  once  dealing  with  a  high  diet. 
Deficient  nutrition  is  itself  a  cause  of  dyspepsia. 
This  is  true  even  of  animals.  "  When  calves  are  fed 
•arith  skimmed  milk,  or  whey,  or  other  poor  food, 
hey  are  liable  to  indigestion."*  Hence,  therefore, 
tfhere  the  energies  are  low,  the  transition  to  a 
generous  diet  must  be  gradual :  each  increment  of 
strength  gained,  justifying  a  further  increase  of 
nutriment.  Further,  it  should  always  be  born  in 
mind  that  the  concentration  of  nutriment  may  be 

*  MOBT  •*'»  "  Cvclonadhnf  Agriculture." 


864  EDUCATION. 

carried  too  far.  A  bulk  sufficient  to  fill  the  stomacli 
is  one  requisite  of  a  proper  meal ;  and  this  requisite 
.legatives  a  diet  deficient  in  those  waste  matters 
srhich  give  adequate  mass.  Though  the  size  of  the 
digestive  organs  is  less  in  the  well-fed  civilized  races 
than  in  the  ill-fed  savage  ones ;  and,  though  their 
size  may  eventually  diminish  still  further ;  yet  for 
the  time  being,  the  bulk  of  the  ingesta  must  be  da- 
termined  by  the  existing  capacity.  But,  paying  due 
regard  to  these  two  qualifications  our  conclusions 
are — that  the  food  of  children  should  be  highly 
nutritive ;  that  it  should  be  varied  at  each  meal 
and  at  successive  meals ;  and  that  it  should  be 
abundant. 

With  clothing  as  with  food,  the  established  tend- 
ency is  toward  an  improper  scantiness.  Here,  too, 
asceticism  peeps  out.  There  is  a  current  theory, 
vaguely  entertained,  if  not  put  into  a  definite  for 
orala,  that  the  sensations  are  to  be  disregarded.  They 
do  not  exist  for  our  guidance,  but  to  mislead  us, 
seems  to  be  the  prevalent  belief  reduced  to  its  naked 
form.  It  is  a  grave  error :  we  are  much  more  benef- 
icently constituted.  It  is  not  obedience  to  the  sen- 
sations, but  disobedience  to  them,  which  is  the 
habitual  cause  of  bodilv  evils.  It  is  not  the  eating 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION.  265 

tokien  hungry,  but  the  eating  in  the  absence  of  appe* 
tite,  which  is  bad.  It  is  not  the  drinking  when 
thirsty,  but  the  continuing  to  drink  when  thirst  has 
ceased,  that  is  the  vice.  Harm  results  not  from 
breathing  that  fresh  air  which  every  healthy  person 
enjoys ;  but  from  continuing  to  breathe  foul  air,  spite 
of  tbe  protest  of  the  lungs.  Harm  results  not  from 
taking  that  active  exercise  which,  as  every  child 
shows  us,  nature  strongly  prompts ;  but  from  a  per- 
sist ent  disregard  of  nature's  promptings.  Not  that 
mental  activity  which  is  spontaneous  and  enjoyable 
does  the  mischief ;  but  that  which  is  persevered  in 
after  a  hot  or  aching  head  commands  desistance.  Not 
that  bodily  exertion  which  is  pleasant  or  indifferent, 
does  injury ;  but  that  which  is  continued  when  ex- 
haustion forbids.  It  is  true  that,  in  those  who  have 
long  led  unhealthy  lives,  the  sensations  are  not  trust- 
worthy guides.  People  who  have  for  years  been  al- 
most constantly  indoors,  who  have  exercised  their 
brains  very  much,  and  their  bodies  scarcely  at  all, 
who  in  eating  have  obeyed  their  clocks  without  con- 
sulting their  stomachs,  may  very  likely  be  misled  by 
their  vitiated  feelings.  But  their  abnormal  state  is 
itself  the  result  of  transgressing  their  feelings.  Had 
they  from  childhood  up  never  disobeyed  what  we 
term  the  physical  conscience-  it  would  nof  bav% 


866  EDUCATION. 

been  seared,  but  would  have  remained  a  faithful 
monitor. 

Among  the  sensations  serving  for  our  guidance  are 
those  of  heat  and  cold ;  and  a  clothing  for  children 
which  does  not  carefully  consult  these  sensations  is 
to  be  condemned.  The  common  notion  about 
44  hardening  "  is  a  grievous  delusion.  Children  are 
not  unfrequently  *4  hardened  "  out  of  the  world ;  and 
those  who  survive,  permanently  suffer  either  in 
growth  or  constitution.  *4  Their  delicate  appearance 
furnishes  ample  indication  of  the  mischief  thus  pro- 
duced, and  their  frequent  attacks  of  illness  might 
prove  a  warning  even  to  unreflecting  parents,"  says 
Dr.  Combe.  The  reasoning  on  which  this  harden- 
ing  theory  rests  is  extremely  superficial.  Wealthy 
parents,  seeing  little  peasant  boys  and  girls  playing 
about  in  the  open  air  only  half-clothed,  and  joining 
with  this  fact  the  general  healthiness  of  laboring 
people,  draw  the  unwarrantable  conclusion  that  the 
healthiness  is  the  result  of  the  exposure,  and  resolve 
to  keep  their  own  offspring  scantily  covered !  It  is 
forgotten  that  these  urchins  who  gambol  upon  village' 
greens  are  in  many  respects  favorably  circumstanced 
— that  their  days  are  spent  in  almost  perpetual  play ; 
that  they  are  always  breathing  fresh  air ;  and  that 
their  systems  are  uot  disturbed  by  over-taxed  bruin* 


PBY8ICAL  EDUCATION.  267 

For  aught  that  appears  to  the  contrary,  their  good 
health  may  be  maintained,  not  in  consequence  of, 
but  in  spite  of,  their  deficient  clothing.  This  alter- 
natx  :e  conclusion  we  believe  to  be  the  true  one  ;  and 
that  an  inevitable  detriment  results  from  the  need- 
less loss  of  animal  heat  to  which  they  are  sub- 
ject. 

For  when,  the  constitution  being  sound  enough  to 
bear  it,  exposure  does  produce  hardness,  it  does  so  at 
the  expense  of  growth.  This  truth  is  displayed 
alike  in  animals  and  in  man.  The  Shetland  pony 
bears  greater  inclemencies  than  the  horses  of  the 
south,  but  is  dwarfed.  Highland  sheep  and  cattle, 
living  in  a  colder  climate,  are  stunted  in  comparison 
with  English  breeds.  In  both  the  arctic  and  antarc- 
tic regions  the  human  race  falls  much  below  its  or- 
dinary height:  the  Laplander  and  Esquimaux  are 
very  short ;  and  the  Terra  del  Fuegians,  who  go 
jaked  in  a  cold  latitude,  are  described  by  Darwin  as 
40  stunted  and  hideous,  that  "  one  can  harflly  make 
one's  self  believe  they  are  fellow-creatures." 

Science  clearly  explains  this  dwarfishness  produced 
by  great  abstraction  of  heat :  showing  that,  food  and 
other  things  being  equal,  it  unavoidably  results. 
For,  as  before  pointed  out,  to  make  up  for  that  cool- 
ing by  radiation  which  the  body  is  constantly  under- 


268  EDUCATION. 

going,  there  must  be  a  constant  oxidation  of  certain 
matters  which  form  part  of  the  food.  And  in  pro- 
portion as  the  thermal  loss  is  great,  must  the  quantity 
of  these  matters  required  for  oxidation  be  great. 
But  the  power  of  the  digestive  organs  is  limited. 
Hence  it  follows,  that  when  they  have  to  prepare  a 
large  quantity  of  this  material  needful  for  maintain- 
ing the  temperature,  they  can  prepare  but  a  small 
quantity  of  the  material  which  goes  to  build  up  the 
frame.  Excessive  expenditure  for  fuel  entails  dimin- 
ished means  for  other  purposes:  wherefore  there 
necessarily  results  a  body  small  in  size,  or  inferior  in 
texture,  or  both. 

Hence  the  great  importance  of  clothing.  As 
Liebig  says:— "  Our  clothing  is,  in  reference  to  the 
temperature  of  the  body,  merely  an  equivalent  for  a 
certain  amount  of  food."  By  diminishing  the  loss  of 
heat,  it  diminishes  the  amount  of  fuel  needful  for 
maintaining  the  heat ;  and  when  the  stomach  has 
less  to  do  in  preparing  fuel,  it  can  do  more  in  pre 
paring  other  materials.  This  deduction  is  entirely 
confirmed  by  the  experience  of  those  who  manage 
animals.  Cold  can  be  borne  by  animals  only  at  an 
expense  of  fat,  or  muscle,  or  growth,  as  the  case  may 
be.  "  If  fattening  cattle  are  exposed  to  a  low  tem- 
perature, either  their  progress  must  be  retarded,  oi 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION.  269 

a  great  additional  expenditure  of  food  incurred.*'  * 
Mr.  Apperley  insists  strongly  that,  to  bring  hunters 
into  good  condition,  it  is  necessary  that  the  stable 
should  be  kept  warm.  And  among  those  who  rear 
racers,  it  is  an  established  doctrine  that  exposure  is 
to  be  avoided. 

The  scientific  truth  thus  illustrated  by  ethnology, 
and  recognized  by  agriculturists  and  sportsmen, 
applies  with  double  force  to  children.  In  proportion 
to  their  smallness  and  the  rapidity  of  their  growth 
is  the  injury  from  cold  great.  In  France,  new- 
born infants  often  die  in  winter  from  being  carried 
to  the  office  of  the  maire  for  registration.  '  M. 
Qaetelet  has  pointed  out,  that  in  Belgium  two  in- 
fants die  in  January  for  one  that  dies  m  July." 
And  in  Russia  the  infant  mortality  is  something 
enormous.  Even  when  near  maturity,  the  undevel- 
oped frame  is  comparatively  unable  to  bear  ex 
posure :  as  witness  the  quickness  with  which  youiig 
soldiers  succumb  in  a  trying  campaign.  The 
rationale  is  obvious.  We  have  already  adverted  to 
the  fact  that,  in  consequence  of  the  varying  relation 
between  surface  and  bulk,  a  child  loses  a  relatively 
larger  amount  of  heat  than  an  adult ;  and  here  we 
must  point  out  that  the  disadvantage  under  which 
*  MORTON'S  "  Cyclopaedia  of  Agriculture." 


270  EDUCATION. 

the  child  thus  labors  is  very  great.  Lehmann  says  :— 
HIf  the  carbonic  acid  excreted  by  children  or  young 
animals  is  calculated  for  an  equal  bodily  weight,  it 
results  that  children  produce  nearly  twice  as  much 
acid  as  adults."  Now  the  quantity  of  carbonic  acid 
given  off  varies  with  tolerable  accuracy  as  the 
quantity  of  heat  produced.  And  thus  we  see  that 
n  children  the  system,  even  when  not  placed  at  a 
iisadvantage,  is  called  upon  to  provide  nearly  double 
the  proportion  of  material  for  generating  heat. 

See,  then,  the  extreme  folly  of  clothing  the  young 
scantily.  What  father,  full-grown  though  he  is, 
losing  heat  less  rapidly  as  he  does,  and  having  no 
physiological  necessity  but  to  supply  the  waste  of 
each  day — what  father,  we  ask,  would  think  it  salu- 
tary to  go  about  with  bare  legs,  bare  arms,  and  bare 
neck?  Yet  this  tax  upon  the  system,  from  which  he 
would  shrink,  he  inflicts  upon  bis  little  ones,  who  are 
30  much  less  able  to  bear  it !  or,  if  he  does  not  inflict 
it,  sees  it  inflicted  without  protest.  Let  him  remem- 
ber that  every  ounce  of  nutriment  needlessly  ex- 
pended for  the  maintenance  of  temperature,  is  so 
much  deducted  from  the  nutriment  going  to  build  up 
;he  frame  and  maintain  the  energies ;  and  that  even 
when  colds,  congestions,  or  other  consequent  dia 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION.  271 

orders  are  escaped,  diminished  growth  or  less  perfect 
structure  is  inevitable. 

"  The  rule  is,  therefore,  not  to  dress  in  an  invari- 
able way  in  all  cases,  but  to  put  on  clothing  in  kind  and 
quantity  sufficient  in  the  individual  case  to  protect  the 
body  effectually  from  an  abiding  sensation  of  cold,  how* 
e^tr  slight"  This  rule,  the  importance  of  which  Dr, 
Combe  indicates  by  the  italics,  is  one  in  which  men 
of  science  and  practitioners  agree.  We  have  met  with 
none  competent  to  form  a  judgment  on  the  matter, 
who  do  not  strongly  condemn  the  exposure  of  chil- 
dren's limbs.  If  there  is  one  point  above  others  in 
which  "pestilent  custom"  should  be  ignored,  it  is 
this. 

Lamentable,  indeed,  is  it  to  see  mothers  seriously 
damaging  the  constitutions  of  their  children  out  of 
compliance  with  an  irrational  fashion.  It  is  bad 
enough  that  they  should  themselves  conform  to 
every  folly  which  our  Gallic  neighbors  please  to 
initiate  •,  but  that  they  should  clothe  their  children 
in  any  mountebank  dress  which  Le  petit  Courrier  des 
Dames  indicates,  regardless  of  its  insufficiency  and 
unfitness,  is  monstrous.  Discomfort  more  or  less 
great,  is  inflicted ;  frequent  disorders  are  entailed ; 
growth  is  checked  or  stamina  undermined ;  pre- 
mature death  not  uncommonly  caused ;  and  all  be 


272  EDUCATION. 

cause  it  is  thought  needful  to  make  frocks  of  a  size 
and  material  dictated  by  French  caprice.  Not  only 
is  it  that  for  the  sake  of  conformity,  mothers  thug 
punish  and  injure  their  little  ones  by  scantiness  of 
covering ;  but  it  is  that  from  an  allied  motive  they 
impose  a  style  of  dress  which  forbids  healthful 
activity.  To  please  the  eye,  colors  and  fabrics  are 
chosen  totally  unfit  to  bear  that  rough  usage  which 
unrestrained  play  involves;  and  then  to  prevent 
damage  the  unrestrained  play  is  interdicted.  "  Get 
up  this  moment:  you  will  soil  your  clean  frock,"  j'a 
the  mandate  issued  to  some  urchin  creeping  about  on 
the  floor.  "  Come  back  :  you  will  dirty  your  stock- 
ings,"  calls  out  the  governess  to  one  of  her  charges^ 
who  has  left  the  footpath  to  scramble  up  a  bank. 
Thus  is  the  evil  doubled.  That  they  may  come  up 
to  their  mamma's  standard  of  prettiness,  and  he  ad- 
mired by  her  visitors,  children  must  have  habiliments 
deficient  in  quantity  and  unfit  in  texture  ;  and  that 
these  easily -damaged  habiliments  may  be  kept  clean 
and  uninjured,  the  restless  activity,  so  natural  and 
needful  for  the  young,  is  more  or  less  restrained.  The 
exercise  which  becomes  doubly  requisite  when  the 
clothing  is  insufficient,  is  cut  short,  lest  it  should  de 
face  the  clothing.  Would  that  the  terrible  cruelty 
of  this  system  could  be  seen  by  those  who  main  taut 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION.  273 

it.  "We  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that,  through  en- 
feebled  health,  defective  energies,  and  consequent 
non-success  in  life,  thousands  are  annually  doomed  to 
unhappiness  by  this  unscrupulous  regard  for  appear- 
ances :  even  when  they  are  not,  by  early  death,  liter- 
ally sacrificed  to  the  Moloch  of  maternal  vanity.  "We 
'are  reluctant  to  counsel  strong  measures,  but  really  the 
evils  are  so  great  as  to  justify,  or  even  to  demand,  a 
peremptory  interference  on  the  part  of  fathers. 

Our  conclusions  are,  then — that,  while  the  clothing 
of  children  should  never  be  in  such  excess  as  to 
create  oppressive  warmth,  it  should  always  be  suffi- 
cient to  prevent  any  general  feeling  of  cold ;  *  that, 
instead  of  the  flimsy  cotton,  linen,  or  mixed  fabrics 
commonly  used,  it  should  be  made  of  some  good  non- 
conductor, such  as  coarse  woolen  cloth;  that  it 
should  be  so  strong  as  to  receive  little  damage  from 
the  hard  wear  and  tear  which  childish  sports  Avill 
give  it ;  and  that  its  colors  should  be  such  as  will 
not  soon  suffer  from  use  and  exposure. 

*  It  is  needful  to  remark  that  children  whose  legs  and  arms 
have  been  from  the  beginning  habitually  without  covering,  cease 
to  be  conscious  that  the  exposed  surfaces  are  cold  ;  just  as  by  use 
we  have  all  ceased  to  be  conscious  that  our  faces  are  cold,  even 
when  out  of  doors.  But  though  in  such  children  the  sensations 
no  longer  protest,  it  does  not  follow  that  the  system  escapes  in- 
jury ;  any  more  than  it  follows  that  the  Fuegian  is  undamaged  by 
exposure,  because  he  bears  with  indifference  the  melting  of  th« 
falling  snow  on  his  naked  body. 
18 


274  EDUCATION. 

To  the  importance  of  bodily  exercise  most  people 
are  in  some  degree  awake.  Perhaps  less  needs  say- 
ing on  this  requisite  of  physical  education  than  on 
most  others :  at  any  rate,  in  so  far  as  boys  are  con- 
cerned. Public  schools  and  private  schools  alike 
furnish  tolerably  adequate  playground;  and  there 
is  usually  a  fair  share  of  time  for  out-of-door  games, 
and  a  recognition  of  them  as  needful.  In  this,  if  in 
no  other  direction,  it  seems  admitted  that  the  natural 
promptings  of  boyish  instinct  may  advantageously 
be  followed ;  and,  indeed,  in  the  modern  practice  of 
breaking  the  prolonged  morning  and  afternoon's 
lessons  by  a  few  minutes'  open-air  recreation,  we  see 
an  increasing  tendency  to  conform  school  regula- 
tions to  the  bodily  sensations  of  the  pupils.  Here, 
then,  little  needs  to  be  said  in  the  way  of  expostu- 
lation or  suggestion. 

But  we  have  been  obliged  to  qualify  this  admission 
by  inserting  the  clause  "in  so  far  as  boys  are  con- 
cerned "  Unfortunately,  the  fact  is  quite  otherwise 
in  the  case  of  girls.  It  chances,  somewhat  strangely, 
that  we  have  daily  opportunity  of  drawing  a  com- 
parison. "We  have  both  a  boy's  and  a  girl's  school 
within  view ;  and  the  contrast  between  them  is  re- 
markable, hi  the  one  case,  nearly  the  whole  of  a 
large  garden  is  turned  into  an  open,  gravelled  space. 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION.  275 

affording  ample  scope  for  games,  and  supplied  with 
poles  and  horizontal  bars  for  gymnastic  exercises. 
Every  day  before  breakfast,  again  toward  eleven 
o'clock,  again  at  midday,  again  in  the  afternoon,  and 
once  more  after  school  is  over  the  neighborhood  is 
awakened  by  a  chorus  of  shouts  and  laughter  as  the 
boys  rush  out  to  play  ;  and  for  as  long  as  they  re- 
main, both  eyes  and  ears  give  proof  that  they  are 
absorbed  in  that  enjoyable  activity  which  makes  the 
pulse  bound  and  ensures  the  healthful  activity  of 
every  organ.  How  unlike  is  the  picture  offered  by 
the  "  Establishment  for  Young  Ladies  ! "  Until  the 
fact  was  pointed  out,  we  actually  did  not  know  that 
we  had  a  girls'  gf/hool  as  close  to  us  as  the  school  for 
boys.  The  ga/den,  equally  large  with  the  other, 
affords  no  sigf)  whatever  of  any  provision  for  juve- 
nile recreation  ;  but  it  is  entirely  laid  out  with  prim 
grassplots,  gravel-walks,  shrubs,  and  flowers,  after 
the  usual  suburban  style.  During  five  mouths  we 
have  not  once  had  our  attention  drawn  to  the  prem- 
ises by  a  shout  or  a  laugh.  Occasionally  girls  may 
be  observed  sauntering  along  the  paths  with  their 
lesson  books  in  their  hands,  or  else  walking  arm-in, 
arm.  Once,  indeed,  we  saw  one  chase  another  round 
the  garden  ;  but,  with  this  exception,  nothing  like 
vigorous  exertion  has  been  visible. 


376  EDUCATION. 

Why  this  astonishing  difference  ?  Is  it  that  the 
constitution  of  a  girl  differs  so  entirely  from  that  of 
a  boy  as  not  to  need  these  active  exercises  ?  Is  it 
that  a  girl  has  none  of  the  promptings  to  vociferous 
play  by  which  boys  are  impelled  ?  Or  is  it  that, 
while  in  boys  these  promptings  are  to  be  regarded  as 
(securing  that  bodily  activity  without  which  there 
cannot  be  adequate  development,  to  their  sisters 
nature  has  given  them  for  no  purpose  whatever— 
unless  it  be  for  the  vexation  of  schoolmistresses? 
Perhaps,  however,  we  mistake  the  aim  of  those  who 
train  the  gentler  sex.  We  have  a  vague  suspicion 
that  to  produce  a  robust  physiaue  is  thought  unde- 
sirable ;  that  rude  health  and  abundant  vigor  are 
considered  somewhat  plebeian ;  that  a  certain  deli* 
cacy,  a  strength  not  competent  to  more  than  a  mile 
or  two's  walk,  an  appetite  fastidious  and  easily  sat- 
isfied, joined  with  that  timidity  which  commonly 
accompanies  feebleness  are  held  more  lady-like.  We 
do  not  expect  that  any  would  distinctly  avow  this  ; 
but  we  fancy  the  governess-mind  is  haunted  by  an 
ideal  young  lady  bearing  not  a  little  resemblance  to 
this  type.  If  so,  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  estab 
lished  sjctem  is  admirably  calculated  to  realize  thk 
ideal.  But  to  suppose  that  such  is  the  ideal  of  the 
opposite  sex  is  a  profound  mistake.  That  men  are 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION.  277 

act  commonly  drawn  toward  masculine  women,  is 
doubtless  true.  That  such  relative  weakness  as  calls 
for  the  protection  of  superior  strength  is  an  element 
of  attraction,  we  quite  admit.  But  the  differ^  ice  to 
which  the  feelings  thus  respond  is  the  natural,  pre- 
established  difference,  which  will  assert  itself  without 
artificial  appliances.  And  when,  by  artificial  appli- 
ances, the  degree  of  this  difference  is  increased,  it 
becomes  an  element  of  repulsion  rather  than  attrac- 
tion. 

**  Then  girls  should  be  allowed  to  run  wild — to 
become  as  rude  as  boys,  and  grow  up  into  romps  and 
hoydens !  "  exclaims  some  defender  of  the  proprieties. 
This,  we  presume,  is  the  ever-present  dread  of 
schoolmistresses.  It  appears,  on  inquiry,  that  at 
"  Establishments  for  Young  Ladies  "  noisy  play  like 
that  daily  indulged  in  by  boys,  is  a  punishable  of- 
fence ;  and  it  is  to  be  inferred  that  this  noisy  play  is 
forbidden,  lest  unlady-like  habits  should  be  formed. 
The  fear  is  quite  groundless,  however.  For  if  the 
sportive  activity  allowed  to  boys  does  not  prevent 
them  from  growing  up  into  gentlemen ;  why  should 
t  like  sportive  activity  allowed  to  girls  prevent  them 
from  growing  up  into  ladies  ?  Rough  as  may  have 
been  their  accustomed  play-ground  frolics,  youths 
who  have  left  school  do  not  indulge  in  leapfrog  in 


27%  EDUCATION 

the  street,  or  marbles  in  the  drawing-room.  Aban 
fdoning  their  jackets,  they  abandon  at  the  same  l..n€ 
boyish  games ;  and  display  an  anxiety — often  a  lu 
dicrous  anxiety — to  avoid  whatever  is  not  manly.  II 
now,  on  arriving  at  the  due  age,  this  feeling  of  mas- 
culine dignity  puts  so  efficient  a  restraint  on  the 
romping  sports  of  boyhood,  will  not  the  feeling  of 
feminine  modesty,  gradually  strengthening  as  ma- 
turity is  approached,  put  an  efficient  restraint  on  the 
like  sports  of  girlhood?  Have  not  women  even  a 
greater  regard  for  appearances  than  men  ?  and  will 
there  not  consequently  arise  in  them  even  a  stronger 
check  to  whatever  is  rough  or  boisterous  ?  How  ab- 
surd is  the  supposition  that  the  womanly  instincts 
would  not  assert  themselves  but  for  the  rigorous  dis» 
cipline  of  schoolmistresses ! 

In  this,  as  in  other  cases,  to  remedy  the  evils  of 
ne  artificiality,  another  artificiality  has  been  intro 
duced.  The  natural  spontaneous  exercise  having 
6ec :  forbidden,  and  the  bad  consequences  of  no  ex 
ercise  having  become  conspicuous,  there  has  beet 
adopted  a  system  of  factitious  exercise — gymnastics. 
That  this  is  better  than  nothing  we  admit ;  but  thai 
it  is  an  adequate  substitute  for  play  we  deny.  The 
defects  are  both  positive  and  negative.  In  the  first 
place,  these  formal,  muscular  motions,  necessarily 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION.  279 

Much  less  varied  than  those  accompanying  juvenile 
gports,  do  not  secure  so  equable  a  distribution  of  ac- 
Son  to  all  parts  of  the  body ;  whence  it  results  that 
tile  exertion,  falling  on  special  parts,  produces  fatigue 
sooner  than  it  would  else  have  done :  add  to  which, 
that,  if  constantly  repeated,  this  exertion  of  special 
parts  leads  to  a  disproportionate  development. 
Again,  the  quantity  of  exercise  thus  taken  will  be 
deficient,  not  only  in  consequence  of  uneven  distri- 
bution, but  it  will  be  further  deficient  in  consequence 
of  lack  of  interest.  Even  when  not  made  repulsive, 
as  they  sometimes  are,  by  assuming  the  shape  of  ap- 
pointed lessons,  these  monotonous  movements  are  sure 
to  become  wearisome,  from  the  absence  of  amusement. 
Competition,  it  is  true,  serves  as  a  stimulus  ;  but  it  is 
not  a  lasting  stimulus,  like  that  enjoyment  which  ac- 
companies varied  play.  Not  only,  however,  are  gym- 
nastics inferior  in  respect  of  the  quantity  of  muscular 
exertion  which  they  secure ;  they  are  still  more  inferior 
fD  respect  of  the  quality.  This  comparative  want  of 
enjoyment  to  which  we  have  just  referred  as  a  cause 
of  early  desistance  from  artificial  exercises,  is  also  a 
cause  of  inferiority  in  the  effects  they  produce  on 
the  system.  The  common  assumption  that  so  long 
as  the  amount  of  bodily  action  is  the  same,  it  matters 
oot  whetner  >t  be  p^aaurabV  c~*  otherwise,  is  u 


280  EDUCATION. 

mistake.  An  agreeable  mental  excitement  has  a 
lighly  invigorating  influence.  See  the  effect  pro* 
luced  upon  an  invalid  by  good  news,  or  by  the  visit 
Df  an  old  friend.  Mark  how  careful  medical  men 
are  to  recommend  lively  society  to  debilitated  pa- 
tients. Remember  how  beneficial  to  the  health  is 
the  gratification  produced  by  change  of  scene.  The 
truth  is  that  happiness  is  the  most  powerful  of  ton- 
ics. By  accelerating  the  circulation  of  the  blood,  it 
facilitates  the  performance  of  every  function  ,  and 
so  tends  alike  to  increase  health  when  it  exists,  and 
to  restore  it  when  it  has  been  lost.  Hence  the  es- 
sential superiority  of  play  to  gymnastics.  The  ex~ 
treme  interest  felt  by  children  in  their  games,  and 
the  riotous  glee  with  which  they  carry  on  their 
rougher  frolics,  are  of  as  much  importance  as  the  ao 
companying  exertion.  And  as  not  supplying  these 
•nental  stimuli,  gymnastics  must  be  fundamentally 
defective. 

Granting  then,  as  we  do,  that  formal  exercises  o. 
ihe  limbs  are  better  than  nothing—  granting,  further 
that  they  may  be  used  with  advantage  as  supplement 
tary  aids ;  we  yet  contend  that  such  formal  exer. 
cises  can  never  supply  the  place  of  the  exercise* 
prompted  by  nature.  For  girls,  as  well  as  boys,  the 
sportive  activities  to  which  the  instincts  impel,  arft 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION,  281 

lesential  to  bodily  welfare.  Whoever  forbids  them, 
forbids  the  divinely  appointed  means  to  physical  de- 
velopment. 

A  topic  still  remains — one  perhaps  more  urgently 
Demanding  consideration  than  any  of  the  foregoing. 
It  is  asserted  by  not  a  few,  that  among  the  educated 
classes  the  younger  adults  and  those  who  are  verg- 
ing upon  maturity  are,  on  the  average,  neither  so 
well  grown  nor  so  strong  as  their  seniors.  When 
first  we  heard  this  assertion,  we  were  inclined  to  dis- 
regard it  as  one  of  the  many  manifestations  of  the 
old  tendency  to  exalt  the  past  at  the  expense  of  the 
present.  Calling  to  mind  the  facts  that,  as  meas- 
ured by  ancient  armor,  modern  men  are  proved  to  be 
larger  than  ancient  men,  and  that  the  tables  of  mor- 
tality show  no  diminution,  but  rather  an  increase  in 
the  duration  of  life,  we  paid  little  attention  to  what 
seemed  a  groundless  belief.  Detailed  observation, 
however,  has  greatly  shaken  our  opinion.  Omitting 
from  the  comparison  the  laboring  classes,  we  have 
noticed  a  majority  of  cases  in  which  the  children  do 
ttot  reach  the  stature  of  their  parents  ;  and  in  mas- 
siveness,  making  due  allowance  for  difference  of  age, 
there  seems  a  like  inferiority.  In  health,  the  con- 
trast appears  still  greater.  Men  of  past  generations* 


282  EDUCATION. 

living  riotously  as  they  did,  could  bear  much  more 
than  men  of  the  present  generation,  who  live  soburly 
tan  bear  Though  they  drank  hard,  kept  irregular 
Itours,  were  regardless  of  fresh  air,  and  thought 
tittle  ol  cleanliness,  our  recent  ancestors  were  capa- 
ble of  prolonged  application  without  injury,  even  to 
a  ripe  old  age :  witness  the  annals  of  the  bench  and 
the  bar.  Yet  we  who  think  much  about  our  bodily 
welfare,  who  eat  with  moderation,  and  do  not  drink 
to  excess ;  who  attend  to  ventilation,  and  use  fro- 
quent  ablutions ;  who  make  annual  excursions,  and 
have  the  benefit  of  greater  medical  knowledge  ; — we 
are  continually  breaking  down  under  our  work. 
Paying  considerable  attention  to  the  laws  of  health, 
we  seem  to  be  weaker  than  our  grandfathers  who,  in 
many  respects,  defied  the  laws  of  health.  And 
judging  from  the  appearance  and  frequent  ailments 
of  the  rising  generation,  they  are  likely  to  be  ever 
less  robust  than  ourselves. 

What  is  the  meaning  of  this?  Is  it  that  past 
over-feeding,  alike  of  adults  and  juveniles,  was  less 
injurious  than  the  under-feeding  to  which  we  have 
adverted  as  now  so  general  ?  Is  it  that  the  deficient 
clothing  which  this  delusive  hardening  theory  has  en- 
couraged, is  to  blame?  Is  it  that  the  greater  or  less 
discouragement  of  iuvenile  sports,  in  deference  to  • 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION.  283 

false  refinement,  is  the  cause  ?  From  our  reasonings 
it  may  be  inferred  that  each  of  these  has  probably 
lad  a  share  in  producing  the  evil.  But  there  has 
been  yet  another  detrimental  influence  at  work,  per- 
haps more  potent  than  any  of  the  others :  we  mean 
— excess  of  mental  application. 

On  old  and  young,  the  pressure  of  modern  life 
puts  a  still-increasing  strain.  In  all  businesses  and 
professions,  intenser  competition  taxes  the  energies 
and  abilities  of  every  adult;  and,  with  the  view  of 
better  fitting  the  young  to  hold  their  place  under 
this  intenser  competition,  they  are  subject  to  a  more 
severe  discipline  than  heretofore.  The  damage  is 
thus  doubled.  Fathers,  who  find  not  only  that  they 
are  run  hard  by  their  multiplying  competitors,  but 
that,  while  laboring  under  this  disadvantage,  they 
have  to  maintain  a  more  expensive  style  of  living, 
are  all  the  year  around  obliged  to  work  early  and 
late,  taking  little  exercise  and  getting  but  short 
holidays.  The  constitutions,  shaken  by  this  long 
continued  over-application,  they  bequeath  to  their 
children.  And  then  these  comparatively  feeble 
children,  predisposed  as  they  are  to  break  down  even 
under  an  ordinary  strain  upon  their  energies,  are  re- 
quired to  go  through  a  curriculum  much  more  extended 


884  EDUCATION. 

*han  that  prescribed  for  the  unenfeebled  childr^ri  ^ 
oast  generations. 

That  disastrous  consequences  must  result  from 
ihis  cumulative  transgression  might  be  predicted 
with  certainty ;  and  that  they  do  result,  every  ob- 
servant person  knows.  Go  where  you  will,  and  be- 
fore long  there  come  under  your  notice  cases  of 
children,  or  youths,  of  either  sex,  more  or  less  ID- 
jured  by  undue  study.  Here,  to  recover  from  a 
^tate  of  debility  thus  produced,  a  year's  rustication 
has  been  found  necessary.  There  you  find  a  chronic 
congestion  of  the  brain,  that  has  already  lasted 
many  months,  and  threatens  to  last  much  longer. 
Now  you  hear  of  a  fever  that  resulted  from  the  over- 
tement  in  some  way  brought  on  at  school.  And, 
4gain,  the  instance  is  that  of  a  youth  who  has  al- 
ready had  once  to  desist  from  his  studies,  and  who, 
since  he  has  returned  to  them,  is  frequently  taken 
of  his  class  in  a  fainting  fit.  We  state  facts— 
that  have  not  been  sought  for,  but  have  beea> 
jtirust  upon  our  observation  during  the  last  tw6 
years;  and  that,  too,  within  a  very  limited  range. 
Nor  have  we  by  any  means  exhausted  the  list.  Quite 
recently  we  had  the  opportunity  of  marking  how  the 
evil  becomes  hereditary :  the  case  being  that  of  a 
lady  of  robust  parentaere.  whose  system  was  so  ID* 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION.  285 

jnred  by  the  regime  of  a  Scotch  boarding-school, 
where  she  was  under-fed  and  over  worked,  that  she 
invariably  suffers  from  vertigo  on  rising  in  the  mori:-. 
ing ;  and  whose  children,  inheriting  this  enfeebled 
brain,  are  several  of  them  unable  to  bear  even  a 
moderate  amount  of  study  without  headache  or  gid< 
diness.  At  the  present  time  we  have  daily  under 
our  eyes,  a  young  lady  whose  system  has  been  dam- 
aged for  life  by  the  college-course  through  which  she 
has  passed.  Taxed  as  she  was  to  such  an  extent 
that  she  had  no  energy  left  for  exercise,  she  is,  now 
that  she  has  finished  her  education,  a  constant  com- 
plainant. Appetite  small  and  very  capricious,  mostly 
refusing  meat;  extremities  perpetually  cold  even 
when  the  weather  is  warm  ;  a  feebleness  which  for- 
bids anything  but  the  slowest  walking,  and  that  only 
for  a  short  time ;  palpitation  on  going  up  stairs ; 
greatly  impaired  vision — these,  joined  with  checked 
growth  and  lax  tissue,  are  among  the  results  entailed, 
And  to  her  case  we  may  add  that  of  her  friend  and 
fellow-student ;  who  is  similarly  weak  ;  who  is  liable 
to  faint  even  under  the  excitement  of  a  quiet  party 
of  friends ;  and  who  has  at  length  been  obliged  by 
her  medical  attendant  to  desist  from  study  entirely. 
If  injuries  so  conspicuous  are  thus  frequent,  how 
very  general  must  be  the  smaller  and  inconspicuous 


286  EDUCATION. 

injuries.  To  one  case  where  positive  illness  u» 
directly  traceable  to  over -application,  there  are  prob- 
ibly  at  least  half-a-dozen  cases  where  the  evil  is  un 
obtrusive  and  slowly  accumulating — cases  where 
there  is  frequent  derangement  of  the  functions,  at- 
tributed to  this  or  that  special  cause,  or  to  constitu* 
iional  delicacy  ;  cases  where  there  is  retardation  and 
premature  arrest  of  bodily  growth ;  cases  where  a 
latent  tendency  to  consumption  is  brought  out  und 
established  ;  cases  where  a  predisposition  is  given  to 
that  now  common  cerebral  disorder  brought  on  by 
the  hard  work  of  adult  life.  How  commonly  con- 
stitutions are  thus  undermined,  will  be  clear  to  all 
who  after  noting  the  frequent  ailments  of  hard- 
worked  professional  and  mercantile  men,  will  reflect 
on  the  disastrous  effects  which  undue  application 
must  produce  upon  the  u»developed  systems  of  the 
young.  The  young  are  competent  to  bear  neither  as 
nuch  hardship,  nor  as  much  physical  exertion,  nor 
is  much  mental  exertion,  as  the  full  grown.  Judge, 
then,  if  the  full  grown  so  manifestly  suffer  from  the 
excessive  mental  exertion  required  of  them,  how 
Tfreat  must  be  the  damage  which  a  mental  exertion, 
)ften  equally  excessive,  inflicts  upon  the  young ! 

Indeed,  when   we  examine    the  merciless  school 
drill  to  which  many  children  are  subjected,  the  won- 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION.  287 

der  is,  not  that  it  does  great  injury,  but  that  it  can 
be  borne  at  all.  Take  the  instance  given  by  Sir 
John  Forbes  from  personal  knowledge ;  and  which 
he  asserts,  after  much  inquiry,  to  be  an  average  sam- 
ple of  the  middle  class  girl's-school  system  through- 
out England.  Omitting  the  detailed  divisions  of 
time,  we  quote  the  summary  of  the  twenty-fom 
hours. 


In  bed 9  hoars  (the  younger  10) 

In  school,  at  their  studies  and  tasks    9      *; 

In  school,  or  in  the  house,  the  older 
at  optional  studies  or  the  work, 
younger  at  play  .  .  .  3J  "  (the  younger  2£} 

At  meals \\ 

Exercise  in  the  open  air,  in  the 
shape  of  a  formal  walk,  often 
with  lesson-books  in  hand,  and 
even  this  only  when  the  weath- 
er is  fine  at  the  appointed  time  1  " 

24 


And  what  are  the  results  of  this  "astounding 
regimen,"  as  Sir  John  Forbes  terms  it  ?  Of  course 
feebleness,  pallor,  want  of  spirits,  general  ill-health. 
But  he  describes  something  more.  This  utter  disre- 
gard of  physical  welfare,  out  of  extreme  anxiety  to 
cultivate  the  mind — this  prolonged  exercise  of  the 
brain  and  deficient  exercise  of  the  limbs, — he  found 
to  be  habitually  followed,  not  only  by  disordered 
functions  but  by  malformation.  He  says : — "  We 


188  EDUCATION. 

Jately  visited,  in  a  large  town,  a  boarding-school  coij. 
taining  forty  girls;  and  we  learned,  on  close  and  ac- 
curate inquiry,  that  there  was  not  one  of  the  girls 
who  had  been  at  the  school  two  years  (and  the  ma- 
jority had  been  as  long)  that  was  not  more  or  less 
crooked!"  * 

It  may  be  that  since  1833,  when  this  was  written., 
some  improvement  has  taken  place.  We  hope  it  ha*. 
But  that  the  system  is  still  common — nay,  that  it  is 
in  some  cases  carried  even  to  a  greater  extreme  than 
ever ;  we  can  personally  testify.  We  recently  went 
over  a  training  college  for  young  men  :  one  of  those 
instituted  cf  late  years  for  the  purpose  of  supplying 
schools  with  well-disciplined  teachers.  Here  under 
official  supervision,  where  something  better  than  the 
judgment  of  private  schoolmistresses  might  have 
been  looked  for,  we  found  the  daily  routine  to  be  as 
follows : — 

A.t  6  o'clock  the  students  are  called, 
'  7  to  8  studies, 

"  8  to  9  scripture  reading,  prayers,  and  breakfast, 
"  9  to  12  studies, 
"  12  to  1J  leisure,  nominally  devoted  to  walk  or  other  exerciM, 

bat  often  spent  in  study, 

u  1\  to  2  dinner,  the  meal  commonly  occupying  twenty  mint  tea 
"  2  to  5  studies, 
*'  5  to  6  tea  and  relaxation, 
"  6  to  8J  studies, 

"  8J  to  9J  private  studies  in  preparing  lessons  for  the  next  day 
"  10  to  bed. 

':  "Cyclopadia  of  Practical  Medicine,"  vol.  i.  pp.  697,  698. 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION.  288 

Thus,  out  of  the  twenty-four  hours,  eight  are  de- 
voted to  sleep ;  four  and  a  quarter  are  occupied  in 
dressing,  prayers,  meals,  and  the  brief  periods  of 
rest  accompanying  them  ;  ten  and  a  half  are  given 
to  studjr ;  and  one  and  a  quarter  to  exercise,  which 
is  optional  and  often  avoided.  Not  only,  however, 
is  it  that  the  ten  and  a  half  hours  of  recognized 
study  are  frequently  increased  to  eleven  and  a  half 
by  devoting  to  books  the  time  set  apart  for  exercise  ; 
but  some  of  the  students  who  are  not  quick  in  learn- 
ing, get  up  at  four  o'clock  in  the  morning  to  prepare 
their  lessons ;  and  are  actually  encouraged  by  their 
teachers  to  do  this  !  The  course  to  be  passed  through 
in  a  given  time  is  so  extensive ;  the  teachers,  whose 
credit  is  at  stake  in  getting  their  pupils  well  through 
the  examinations,  are  so  urgent ;  and  the  difficulty 
of  satisfying  the  requirements  is  so  great ;  that  pu- 
pils are  not  uncommonly  induced  to  spend  twelve 
and  thirteen  hours  a  day  in  mental  labor ! 

It  needs  no  prophet  to  see  that  the  bodily  injury 
inflicted  must  be  great.  As  we  were  told  by  one  of 
the  inmates,  those  who  arrive  with  fresh  complexions 
quickly  become  blanched.  Illness  is  frequent :  there 
are  always  some  on  the  sick-list.  Failure  of  appe 
tite  and  indigestion  are  very  common.  Diarrhoea  is 

a  prevalent  disorder:  not  uncommonly  a  third  of  the 
19 


280  EDUCATION. 

whole  number  of  students  suffering  under  it  at  tot 
iame  time.  Headache  is  generally  complained  of; 
and  by  some  is  borne  almost  daily  for  months. 
While  a  certain  percentage  break  down  entirely  and 
go  away. 

That  this  should  be  the  regimen  of  what  is  in  some 
gort  a  model  institution,  established   and   superin- 
tended by  the  embodied  enlightenment  of  the  age,  is 
a  startling  fact.      That   the   severe   examinations, 
joined  with  the  short  period  assigned  for  preparation 
should  practically  compel  recourse  to  a  system  whic! 
inevitably  undermines  the  health  of  all   who  pass 
through  it,  is  proof,  if  not  of  cruelty,  then  of  woeful 
ignorance. 

Doubtless  the  case  is  in  a  great  degree  exceptional 
— perhaps  to  be  paralleled  only  in  other  institutions 
of  the  same  slass.  But  that  cases  so  extreme  should 
exist  at  all,  indicates  pretty  clearly  how  great  is  the 
extent  to  which  the  minds  of  the  rising  generation 
are  overtasked.  Expressing  as  they  do  the  ideas  of 
the  educated  community,  these  training  colleges, 
even  in  the  absence  of  all  other  evidence,  would 
conclusively  imply  a  prevailing  tendency  to  aii  OD 
duly  urgent  system  of  culture. 

It  seems  strange  that  there  should  be  so  little  con- 
sciousness of  the  dangers  of  over-education  during 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION.  291 

youth,  when  there  is  so  general  a  consciousness  of 
the  dangers  of  over-education  during  childhood. 
Most  parents  are  more  or  less  aware  of  the  evil  con- 
sequences that  follow  infant  precocity.  In  every 
society  may  be  heard  reprobation  of  those  who  too 
early  stimulate  the  minds  of  their  little  ones.  And 
the  dread  of  this  early  stimulation  is  great  in  pro- 
portion as  there  is  adequate  knowledge  of  the  effects  : 
witness  the  implied  opinion  of  one  of  our  most  dis- 
tinguished professors  of  physiology,  who  told  us  that 
he  did  not  intend  his  little  boy  to  learn  any  lessons 
until  he  was  eight  years  old.  But  while  to  all  it  is  a 
familiar  truth  that  a  forced  development  of  intelli- 
gence in  childhood  entails  disastrous  results — either 
physical  feebleness,  or  ultimate  stupidity,  or  early 
death — it  appears  not  to  be  perceived  that  throughout 
youth  the  same  truth  holds.  Yet  it  is  certain  that  it 
must  do  so.  There  is  a  given  order  in  which,  and  a 
given  rate  at  which,  the  faculties  unfold.  If  the 
course  of  education  conforms  itself  to  that  order  and 
rate,  well.  If  not — if  the  higher  faculties  are  early 
taxed  by  presenting  an  order  of  knowledge  more 
complex  and  abstract  than  can  be  readily  assimi- 
lated ;  or,  if,  by  excess  of  culture,  the  intellect  in 
general  is  developed  to  a  degree  beyond  that  which 
is  natural  to  the  age ;  the  abnormal  result  so  pro- 


8B  EDUCATION. 

duced  will  inevitably  be  accompanied  by  some 
aleut,  or  more  than  equivalent,  evil. 

For  Nature  is  a  strict  accountant ;  and  if  you  de- 
mand of  her  in  one  direction  more  than  she  is  pre- 
pared to  lay  out,  she  balances  the  account  by  making 
a  deduction  elsewhere.  If  you  will  let  her  follow 
her  o\vn  course,  taking  care  to  supply,  in  right 
quantities  and  kinds,  the  raw  materials  of  bodily  and 
mental  growth  required  at  each  age,  she  will  event- 
ually produce  an  individual  more  or  less  evenly 
developed.  It,  however,  you  insist  on  premature  or 
undue  growth  oi  any  one  part,  she  will,  with  more 
or  less  protest,  concede  the  point ;  but  that  she  may 
do  your  extra  work,  she  must  leave  some  of  her 
more  important  work  undone.  Let  it  never  be  for- 
gotten that  the  amount  of  vital  energy  which  the 
body  at  any  moment  possesses  is  limited  ;  and  that, 
being  limited,  it  is  impossible  to  get  from  it  more 
than  a  fixed  quantity  of  results.  In  a  child  or  youth 
the  demands  upon  this  vital  energy  are  various  and 
urgent.  As  before  pointed  out,  the  waste  conse- 
quent on  the  day's  bodily  exercise  has  to  be  repaired  j 
the  wear  of  brain  entailed  by  the  day's  study  has 
to  be  made  good  ;  a  certain  additional  growth  of 
body  has  to  be  provided  for ;  and  also  a  certain  ad' 
iiml  growth  of  brain :  add  to  which  the  amount 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION.  383 

of  energy  absorbed  in  the  digestion  of  a  large 
quantity  of  food  required  for  meeting  these  many 
demands.  Now,  that  to  divert  an  excess  of  energy 
into  any  one  of  these  channels  is  to  abstract  it  liom 
the  others,  is  not  only  manifest  a, priori}  but  may  be 
shown  a  posteriori  from  the  experience  of  every  one. 
Every  one  knows,  for  instance,  that  the  digestion  oi 
a  heavy  meal  makes  su^h  a  demand  on  the  system  as 
to  produce  lassitude  of  mind  and  body,  ending  not 
unirequently  in  sleep.  Every  one  knows,  too,  that 
excess  of  bodily  exercise  diminishes  the  power  of 
thought — that  the  temporary  prostration  following 
any  sudden  exertion,  or  the  fatigue  produced  by  a 
thirty  miles'  walk,  is  accompanied  by  a  disinclination 
to  mental  effort ;  that,  alter  a  month's  pedestrian 
tour,  the  mental  inertia  is  such  that  some  days  are 
required  to  overcome  it ;  and  that  in  peasants  who 
spend  their  lives  in  muscular  labor  the  activity  of 
mind  is  very  small.  Again,  it  is  a  truth  familiar  to 
all  that  during  those  fits  of  extreme  rapid  growth 
which  sometimes  occur  in  childhood,  tin  great  ab- 
straction of  energy  is  shown  in  the  attendant  pros- 
tration, bodily  and  mental.  Once  more  the  facts 
that  violent  muscular  exertion  after  eating  will  stop 
digestion,  and  that  children  who  are  early  put  to 
tard  labor  become  stunted,  similarly  exhibit  the  an 


294  EDUCATION. 

tagonism — similarly  imply  that  excess  of  activity  iD 
one  direction  involves  deficiency  of  it  in  oihe, 
directions.  Now,  the  law  which  is  thus  manifest  in 
extreme  cases  holds  in  all  cases.  These  injurious 
abstractions  of  energy  as  certainly  take  place  when 
the  undue  demands  are  slight  and  constant,  as 
when  they  are  great  and  sudden.  Hence,  if  in 
youth,  the  expenditure  in  mental  labor  exceeds  that 
which  nature  had  provided  for;  the  expenditure  for 
other  purposes  falls  below  what  it  should  have  been: 
and  evils  of  one  kind  or  other  are  inevitably  entailed. 
Let  us  briefly  consider  these  evils. 

Supposing  the  over-activity  of  brain  not  to  be  ex- 
treme, but  to  exceed  the  normal  activity  only  in  a 
moderate  degree,  there  will  be  nothing  more  than 
some  slight  reaction  on  the  development  of  the  body : 
the  stature  falling  a  little  below  that  which  it  would 
else  have  reached;  or  the  bulk  being  less  than  it 
would  have  been;  or  the  quality  of  tissue  being  not 
so  good.  One  or  more  of  these  effects  must  nec- 
essarily occur.  The  extra  quantity  of  blood  supplied 
to  the  brain,  not  only  during  the  period  of  mental 
exertion,  but  during  the  subsequent  period  in  which 
the  waste  of  cerebral  substance  is  Item*;  made  good, 
is  blood  that  would  else  have  been  circulating 
through  the  limbs  and  viscera;  and  the  amount  of 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION.  285 

growth  or  repair  for  which  that  blood  would  have 
supplied  materials,  is  lost.  This  physical  reaction 
being  certain,  the  question  is,  whether  the  gain  re- 
sulting from  the  extra,  culture  is  equivalent  to  the 
loss? — whether  defect  of  bodily  growth,  or  the  want 
of  that  structural  perfection  which  gives  high  vigor 
and  endurance,  is  compen&i.ied  for  by  the  additional 
knowledge  gained  ? 

When  the  excess  of  mental  exertion  is  greater, 
there  follow  results  far  more  serious;  telling  not 
only  against  bodily  perfection,  but  against  the  per- 
fection of  the  brain  itself.  It  is  a  physiologies1  law, 
6rsfc  pointed  out  by  M.  Isidore  St.  Hilaire,  ind  to 
which  attention  has  been  drawn  by  Mr.  Lewes  in  his 
essay  on  "  Dwarfs  and  Giants,"  that  there  is  an  an- 
tagonism between  grciuth  and  development.  By 
growth,  as  used  in  this  antithetical  sense,  is  to  be 
understood  increase  of  size  ;  by  development,  increase 
of  structure.  And  the  '  aw  is,  that  great  activity  in 
cither  of  these  processes  involves  retardation  or 
arrest  of  the  other.  A  familiar  illustration  is  fur- 
nished by  the  cases  of  the  caterpillar  and  the 
chrysalis.  In  the  caterpillar  there  is  extremely 
rapid  augmentation  of  bulk ;  but  the  structure  ia 
scarcely  at  all  more  complex  when  the  caterpillar  is 
full  grown  than  when  JE  is  small.  In  the  chrysalis 


296  EDUCATION. 

the  bulk  does  not  increase ;  on  the  contrary,  weigh* 
>s  lost  during  this  stage  of  the  creature's  life;  but 
the  elaboration  of  a  more  complex  structure  goes  on 
with  great  activity.  The  antagonism,  here  so  clear, 
is  less  traceable  in  higher  creatures,  because  the 
two  processes  are  carried  on  together.  But  we  see 
it  pretty  well  illustrated  among  ourselves  by  con- 
trasting the  sexes.  A  girl  develops  in  body  and 
Jaind  rapidly,  and  ceases  to  grow  comparatively 
early.  A  boy's  bodily  and  mental  development  is 
slower,  and  his  growth  greater.  At  the  age  when 
the  one  is  mature,  finished,  and  having  all  faculties 
in  full  play,  the  other,  whose  vital  energies  have 
been  more  directed  toward  increase  of  size,  is 
relatively  incomplete  in  structure ;  and  shows  it  in 
a  comparative  awkwardness,  bodily  and  mental. 
Now  this  law  is  true  not  only  of  the  organism  as  a 
whole,  but  of  each  separate  part.  The  abnormally 
rapid  advance  of  anv  part  in  respect  of  structure  in. 
solves  premature  arrest  of  its  growth ;  and  this  hap- 
pens with  the  organ  of  the  mind  as  certainly  as  with 
any  other  organ.  The  brain,  which  during  early 
years  is  relatively  large  in  mass  but  imperfect  in 
structure  will,  if  required  to  perform  its  functions 
with  undue  activity,  undergo  a  structural  advance 
greater  than  is  appropriate  to  the  age;  but  the 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION.  297 

_  .ornate  effect  will  be  a  falling  short  of  the  size  and 
power  that  would  else  have  been  attained.  And 
this  is  a  part  cause — probably  the  chief  cause — why 
precocious  children,  and  youths  who  up  to  a  certain 
time  were  carrying  all  before  them,  so  often  stop 
short  and  disappoint  the  high  hopes  of  their  par- 
ents. 

But  these  results  of  over-education,  disastrous  as 
they  are,  are  perhaps  less  disastrous  than  the  results 
produced  upon  the  health — the  undermined  consti- 
tution, the  enfeebled  energies,  the  morbid  feelings. 
Recent  discoveries  in  physiology  have  shown  how 
immense  is  the  influence  of  the  brain  over  the  func- 
tions of  the  body.  The  digestion  of  the  food,  the 
circulation  of  the  blood,  and  through  these  all  other 
organic  processes,  are  profoundly  affected  by  cerebral 
excitement.  Whoever  has  seen  repeated,  as  we 
have,  the  experiment  first  performed  by  Weber, 
showing  the  consequence  of  irritating  the  vagus 
nerve  which  connects  the  brain  with  the  viscera—- 
whoever has  seen  the  action  of  the  heart  suddenly 
arrested  by  the  irritation  of  this  nerve ;  slowly  re- 
commencing when  the  irritation  is  suspended  ;  and 
again  arrested  the  moment  it  is  renewed ;  will  have 
a  vivid  conception  of  the  depressing  influence  which 
MI  over- wrought  brain  exercises  on  the  body.  The 


298  EDUCATION. 

effects  thus  physiologically  explained,  are  indeed 
exemplified  in  ordinary  experience.  There  is  no  one 
but  has  felt  the  palpitation  accompanying  hope,  fear, 
anger,  joy — no  one  but  has  observed  how  labored 
becomes  the  action  of  the  heart  when  these  feelings 
are  very  violent.  And  though  there  are  many  who 
have  never  themselves  suffered  that  extreme  emo- 
tional excitement  which  is  followed  by  arrest  of  the 
heart's  action  and  fainting;  yet  everyone  knowu 
them  to  bo  cause  and  effect.  It  is  a  familiar  fact,. 
too,  that  disturbance  of  the  stomach  is  entailed  by 
mental  excitement  exceeding  a  certain  intensity. 
Loss  of  appetite  is  a  common  result  alike  of  very 
pleasurable  and  very  painful  states  of  mind.  When 
the  event  producing  a  pleasurable  or  painful  state  of 
mind  occurs  shortly  after  a  meal,  it  not  unfrequently 
happens  either  that  the  stomach  rejects  what  ha# 
been  eaten,  or  digests  it  with  great  difficulty  ancj 
under  prolonged  protest.  And  as  every  one  whu 
taxes  his  brain  much  can  testify,  even  purely  intel  • 
lectual  action  will,  when  excessive,  produce  analogous 
effects.  Now  the  relation  between  brain  and  bodj/ 
which  is  so  manifest  in  these  extreme  cases,  holdg 
equally  in  ordinary,  less-marked  cases.  Just  as  thesft 
violent  but  temporary  cerebral  excitements  produce 
violent  but  temoorary  disturbances  of  the  viscera; 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION.  298 

to  do  the  less  violent  but  chronic  cerebral  excite* 
ments,  produce  less  violent  but  chronic  visceral  dis- 
turbances. This  is  not  simply  an  inference — it  is  a 
truth  to  which  every  medical  man  can  bear  witness ; 
and  it  is  one  to  which  a  long  and  sad  experience  en- 
ables us  to  give  personal  testimony.  Various  de- 
grees and  forms  of  bodily  derangement,  often  taking 
years  of  enforced  idleness  to  set  partially  right,  re- 
sult from  this  prolonged  over-exertion  of  mind. 
Sometimes  the  heart  is  chiefly  affected :  habitual 
palpitations;  a  pulse  much  enfeebled;  and  very 
generally  a  diminution  in  the  number  of  beats  from 
seventy-two  to  sixty,  or  even  fewer.  Sometimes  the 
conspicuous  disorder  is  of  the  stomach ;  a  dyspepsia 
which  makes  life  a  burden,  and  is  amenable  to  no 
remedy  but  time.  In  many  cases  both  heart  and 
stomach  ar<°  :mplicated.  Mostly  the  sleep  is  short 
and  brokei.  And  very  generally  there  is  more  or 
less  mental  depression. 

Consider,  then,  how  great  must  be  the  damage  in- 
flicted by  undue  mental  excitement  on  children  and 
youths.  More  or  less  of  this  constitutional  disturb- 
ance will  inevitably  follow  an  exertion  of  brain  be- 
yond that  which  nature  had  provided  for ;  and  when 
not  so  excessive  as  to  produce  absolute  illness,  is 
sure  to  entail  a  slowly  accumulating  degeneracy  of 


WO  EDUCATION. 

physique.  With  a  small  and  fastidious  appetite,  &r 
imperfect  digestion,  and  an  enfeebled  circulation, 
how  can  the  developing  body  flourish?  The  due 
performance  of  every  vital  process  depends  on  the 
adequate  supply  of  good  blood.  Without  enough 
good  blood,  no  gland  c»n  secrete  properly,  no  viscus 
can  fully  discharge  its  office.  Without  enough  good 
blood,  no  nerve,  muscle,  membrane,  or  other  tissue 
can  be  efficiently  repaired.  Without  enough  good 
blood,  growth  will  neither  be  sound  or  sufficient. 
Judge  then,  how  bad  must  be  the  consequences  when 
to  a  growing  body  the  weakened  stomach  supplies 
blood  that  is  deficient  in  quantity  and  poor  in  qual- 
ity; while  the  debilitated  heart  propels  this  poor 
and  scanty  blood  with  unnatural  slowness. 

And  if,  as  all  who  candidly  investigate  the  matter 
must  admit,  physical  degeneracy  is  a  consequence 
of  excessive  study,  how  grave  is  the  condemnation 
V)  be  passed  upon  this  cramming  system  above  ex- 
amplified.  It  is  a  terrible  mistake,  from  whatever 
point  of  view  regarded.  It  is  a  mistake  in  so  far  as 
the  mere  acquirement  of  knowledge  is  concerned : 
for  it  is  notorious  that  the  mind,  like  the  body,  can 
not  assimilate  beyond  a  certain  rate ;  and  if  you  ply 
it  with  facts  faster  than  it  can  ungulate  them,  they 
are  veiy  soon  rejected  .--*ain:  they  do  not  oecome 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION.  301 

permanently  built  into  the  intellectual  laoric ,  but 
fall  out  of  recollection  after  the  passing  of  the  exam- 
ination for  which  they  were  got  up.  It  is  a  mistake, 
too,  because  it  tends  to  make  study  distasteful. 
Either  through  the  painful  associations  produced  by 
ceaseless  mental  toil,  or  through  the  abnormal  state 
of  brain  it  leaves  behind,  it  often  generates  an  aver- 
sion to  books ;  and,  instead  of  that  subsequent  self- 
culture  induced  by  a  rational  education,  there  comes 
a  continued  retrogression.  It  is  a  mistake,  also,  in- 
asmuch as  it  assumes  that  the  acquisition  of  knowl- 
edge is  everything ;  and  forgets  that  a  much  more 
important  matter  is  the  organization  of  knowledge, 
for  which  time  and  spontaneous  thinking  are  requi- 
site. Just  as  Humboldt  remarks  respecting  the 
progress  of  intelligence  in  general,  that  "  the  inter- 
pretation of  nature  is  obscured  when  the  description 
languishes  under  too  great  an  accumulation  of  insu 
iated  facts ; "  so  it  may  be  remarked,  respecting  the 
progress  of  individual  intelligence,  that  the  mind  is 
overburdened  and  hampered  by  an  excess  of  ill- 
digested  information.  It  is  not  the  knowledge 
stored  up  as  intellectual  fat  which  is  of  value ;  but 
ithat  which  is  turned  into  intellectual  muscle.  But 
the  mistake  is  still  deeper.  Even  were  the  system 
good  as  a  system  of  intellectual  training,  which  it  is 


302  EDUCATION. 

mot,  it  would  still  be  bad,  because,  as  we  have  shown 
it  is  fatal  to  that  vigor  of  physique  which  is  needful 
to  make  intellectual  training  available  in  the  struggle 
of  life.  Those  who,  in  eagerness  to  cultivate  their 
pupils'  minds,  are  reckless  of  their  bodies,  do  not 
remember  that  success  in  the  world  depends  much 
more  upon  energy  than  upon  information  ;  and  that 
a  policy  which  in  cramming  with  information  under- 
mines energy,  is  self-defeating.  The  strong  will  and 
untiring  activity  which  result  from  abundant  animal 
vigor,  go  far  to  compensate  even  for  great  defects 
of  education ;  and  when  joined  with  that  quite 
adequate  education  which  may  be  obtained  without 
sacrificing  health,  they  ensure  an  easy  victory  over 
competitors  enfeebled  by  excessive  study :  prodigies 
of  learning  though  they  may  be.  A  comparatively 
small  and  ill-made  engine,  worked  at  high-pressure, 
will  do  more  than  a  larger  and  well-finished  one 
worked  at  low-pressure.  What  folly  is  it,  then, 
while  finishing  the  engine,  sc  to  damage  the  boiler 
that  it  will  not  generate  steam!  Once  more,  the 
system  is  a  mistake,  as  involving  a  false  estimate  of 
welfare  in  life.  Even  supposing  it  were  a  means  to 
worldly  success,  instead  of  a  means  to  world  1}  rail- 
ore,  yet,  in  the  entailed  ill-health,  it  would  inflict  a 
Dcore  than  equivalent  curse.  What  boots  it  to  have 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION.  3Q» 

attained  wealths  if  the  wealth  is  accompanied  by 
ceaseless  ailments?  What  is  the  worth  of  distinc- 
tion, if  it  has  brought  hypochondria  with  it  ?  Surely 
none  needs  telling  that  a  good  digestion,  a  bounding 
pulse,  and  high  spirits  are  elements  of  happiness 
which  no  external  advantages  can  outbalance. 
Chronic  bodily  disorder  casts  a  gloom,  over  the 
brightest  prospects ;  while  the  vivacity  of  strong 
health  gilds  even  misfortune.  We  contend,  then, 
that  this  over-education  is  vicious  in  every  way — 
vicious,  as  giving  knowledge  that  will  soon  be  for- 
gotten; vicious,  as  producing  a  disgust  for  knowl- 
edge ;  vicious,  as  neglecting  that  organization  of 
knowledge  which  is  more  important  that  its  acquisi- 
tion ;  vicious,  as  weakening  or  destroying  that 
energy,  without  which  a  trained  intellect  is  useless ; 
vicious,  as  entailing  that  ill-health  for  which  even 
success  would  not  compensate,  and  which  makes 
failure  doubly  bitter. 

On  women  the  effects  of  this  forcing  system  are, 
if  possible,  even  more  injurious  than  on  men.  Being 
in  great  measure  debarred  from  those  vigorous  and 
enjoyable  exercises  of  body  by  which  boys  mitigate 
the  evils  of  excessive  study,  girls  feed  these  evils  w 
their  full  intensity,  Hence,  the  much  smaller  pro- 
portion of  them  who  grow  up  well  made  and  healthy. 


904  EDUCATION. 

In  the  pale,  angular,  flat-chested  young  ladies,  s* 
abundant  in  London  drawing-rooms,  we  see  the 
effect  of  merciless  application,  unrelieved  by  youth 
ful  sports;  and  this  physical  degeneracy  exhibited 
bey  them,  hinders  their  welfare  far  more  than  their 
many  accomplishments  aid  it.  Mammas  anxious  tc 
make  their  daughters  attractive,  could  scarcely 
choose  a  course  more  fatal  than  this,  which  sacrifices 
the  body  to  the  mind.  Either  they  disregard  the 
tastes  of  the  opposite  sex,  or  else  their  conception 
of  those  tastes  is  erroneous.  Men  care  comparatively 
little  for  erudition  in  women ;  but  very  much  for 
physical  beauty,  and  good-nature,  and  sound  sens^. 
How  many  conquests  does  the  blue-stocking  make 
through  her  extensive  knowledge  of  history  ?  What 
man  ever  fell  in  love  with  a  woman  because  she 
understood  Italian?  Where  is  the  Edwin  who  way 
brought  to  Angelina's  feet  by  her  German?  But 
rosy  cheeks  and  laughing  eyes  are  great  attractions. 
A  finely  rounded  figure  draws  admiring  glances. 
The  liveliness  and  good  humor  that  overflowing 
health  produces,  go  a  great  way  toward  establishing 
attachments.  Every  one  knows  cases  where  bodily 
perfections,  in  the  absence  of  all  other  recommends 
tions,  have  incited  a  passion  that  carried  ali 
before  it  ;  but  scarcely  anv  one  can  point  to  e 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION.  SOS 

case  wnere  mere  intellectual  acquirements,  apart 
from  moral  or  physical  attributes,  have  arousec 
such  a  feeling.  The  truth  is  that,  out  of  the 
many  elements  uniting  in  various  proportions  to 
produce  in  a  man's  breast  that  complex  emotion 
which  we  call  love,  the  strongest  are  those  produced 
by  physical  attractions  ;  the  next  in  order  of  strength 
are  those  produced  by  moial  attractions ;  the  weak- 
est are  those  produced  by  intellectual  attractions ; 
and  even  these  are  dependent  much  less  upon  ac- 
quired knowledge  than  on  natural  faculty — quick- 
ness, wit,  insight.  If  any  think  the  assertion  a  de- 
rogatory one,  and  inveigh  against  the  ma?  -uline 
character  for  being  thus  swayed ;  we  reply  that  they 
little  know  what  they  say  when  they  thus  call  in 
question  the  Divine  ordinations.  Even  were  there 
no  obvious  meaning  in  the  arrangement,  we  might 
be  sure  that  some  important  end  was  subserved. 
But  the  meaning  is  quite  obvious  to  those  who  ex- 
amine. It  needs  but  to  remember  that  one  of  Na- 
ture's ends,  or  rather  her  supreme  end,  is  the  wel- 
fare of  posterity — it  needs  but  to  remember  that,  in 
30  far  as  posterity  are  concerned,  a  cultivated  intel- 
ligence based  upon  a  bad  physique  is  of  little  worth, 
seeing  that  its  descendants  will  die  out  in  a  genera- 
tion or  two — it  needs  bat  to  bear  in  mind  that  a  good 
20 


306  EDUCATION. 

physique,  however  poor  the  accompanying  mental  e» 
dowments,  is  worth  preserving,  because,  through 
out  future  generations,  the  mental  endowments 
may  be  indefinitely  developed — it  needs  but  to  con- 
template these  truths,  to  see  how  important  is  the 
balance  of  instincts  above  described.  But,  purpost 
apart,  the  instincts  being  thus  balanced,  it  is  a  fatal 
folly  to  persist  in  a  system  which  undermines  a  girl's 
constitution  that  it  may  overload  her  memory.  Edu- 
cate as  highly  as  possible — the  higher  the  better- 
providing  no  bodily  injury  is  entailed  (and  we  may 
remark,  in  passing,  that  a  high  standard  might  be  so 
reached  were  the  parrot-faculty  cultivated  less,  and 
the  human  faculty  more,  and  were  the  discipline  ex- 
tended over  that  now  wasted  period  between  leaving 
school  and  being  married).  But  to  educate  in  such 
manner,  or  to  such  extent,  as  to  produce  physical  de- 
generacy, is  to  defeat  the  chief  end  for  which  the 
toil  and  cost  and  anxiety  are  submitted  to.  By  sub- 
jecting their  daughters  to  this  high-pressure  system, 
parents  frequently  ruin  their  prospects  in  life.  Not 
only  do  they  inflict  on  them  enfeebled  health,  with 
all  its  pains  and  disabilities  and  gloom ;  but  verr 
often  they  actually  doom  them  to  celibacy. 

general  conclusion  is,  then,  that  the  ordirai* 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION.  tt1 

treatment  of  children  is,  in  various  way*,  seriously 
prejudicial.  It  errs  in  deficient  feeding ;  in  deficient 
clothing ;  in  deficient  exercise  (among  girls  at  least); 
and  in  excessive  mental  application.  Considering 
the  regime  as  a  whole,  its  tendency  is  too  exacting: 
it  asks  too  much  and  gives  too  little.  In  the  extent 
to  vvhich  it  taxes  the  vital  energies,  it  makes  the 
juvenile  life  much  more  like  the  adult  life  than  16 
snould  be.  It  overlooks  the  truth  that,  as  in  the 
foetus  the  entire  vitality  is  expended  in  the  direction 
of  growth — as  in  the  infant,  the  expenditure  of 
vitality  in  growth  is  so  great  as  to  leave  extremely 
little  for  either  physical  or  mental  action ;  so  through- 
out childhood  and  youth  growth  is  the  dominant  re- 
quirement to  which  all  others  must  be  subordinated : 
a  requirement  which  dictates  the  giving  of  much  and 
the  taking  away  of  little — a  requirement  which, 
therefore,  restricts  the  exertion  of  body  and  mind  to 
a  degree  proportionate  to  the  rapidity  of  growth — a 
requirement  which-  permits  the  mental  and  physical 
activities  to  increase  only  as  fast  as  the  rate  of 
growth  diminishes. 

Regarded  from  another  point  of  view,  this  high- 
pressure  education  manifestly  results  from  DUI  pass 
ing  phase  of  civilization,  ill  Drimitive  times  when 
aggression  and  defence  «ye*tf  the  leading  social  ao 


Mte  EDUCATION. 

tiv'ties,  bodily  vigor  with  its  accompanying  courage 
were  the  desiderata;  and  then  education  was  almost 
wholly  physical :  mental  cultivation  was  little  cared 
for,  and  indeed,  as  in  our  own  feudal  ages,  was  often 
treated  with  contempt.  But  now  that  our  state  is 
relatively  peaceful — now  that  muscular  power  is  o' 
;  cue  for  little  else  than  manual  labor,  while  social  sue 
eess  of  nearly  every  kind  depends  very  much  or 
mental  power ;  our  education  has  become  almost  ex- 
clusively mental.  Instead  of  respecting  the  body 
and  ignoring  the  mind,  we  now  respect  the  mind  and 
ignore  the  body.  Both  these  attitudes  are  wrong. 
We  do  not  yet  sufficiently  realize  the  truth  that  as, 
in  this  lite  of  ours,  the  physical  underlies  the  mental, 
the  mental  must  not  be  developed  at  the  expense  o; 
the  physical.  The  ancient  and  modern  conceptions 
must  be  combined. 

Perhaps  nothing  will  so  much  hasten  the  time 
when  body  and  mind  will  both  be  adequately  cared 
for,  as  a  diffusion  of  the  belief  that  the  preservation 
of  health  is  a  duty.  Few  seem  conscious  that  there 
is  such  a  thing  as  physical  morality.  Men's  habitual 
words  and  acts  imply  the  idea  that  they  are  at  lib« 
erty  to  treat  their  bodies  as  they  please.  Disorders 
entailed  by  disobedience  to  Nature's  dictates,  they 
-,-egard  simply  as  grievances :  not  a*  the  effects  of" » 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION.  308 

jonduct  more  or  less  flagitious.  Though  the  evil 
consequences  inflicted  on  their  dependents,  and  on 
future  generations,  are  often  as  great  as  those  caused 
by  crime  ;  yet  they  do  not  think  themselves  in  any 
degree  criminal.  It  is  true,  that,  in  the  case  of 
Irunkenness,  the  viciousness  of  a  purely  bodily 
transgression  is  recognized  ;  but  none  appear  to  infer 
that,  if  this  bodily  transgression  is  vicious,  so  too  is 
?very  bodily  transgression.  The  fact  is,  that  all 
breaches  of  the  laws  of  health  are  physical  sins. 
When  this  is  generally  seen,  then,  and  perhaps  not 
til!  then,  will  the  physical  training  of  the  young  w 
all  the  attention  it  deserves. 


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)eemster,  The.     By  Hall  Caiae. 
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Dream  Life.     By  Ik  Marvel. 
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Fair  Maid  of  Perth.  Sir  Walter  Scott. 
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Felix  Holt.     By  George  Eliot. 

Fifteen  Decisive  Battles  of  the  World. 

By   E.    S.    Creasy. 

File    No.    113.      By   Emile    Gaboriau 
First  Principles.     Herbert  Spencer. 
First  Violin.  By  Jessie  Fothergill. 
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Forty- Five    Guardsmen.      Dumas. 
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Fragments  of  Science.  John  Tyndah 
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Webster,       Daniel,       Life      of.         t».  / 

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Webster's  Speeches.     (Selected). 
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Whites  and  the  Blues.     Dumas. 
Whittier's  Poems.    J.  G.  Whittier. 
Wide,      Wide      World.        By      SVBM 

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By   Edward  A.   Freeman. 
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Frederick  Harrison. 
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Wonder  Book.     N.  Hawtherne. 
Woodstock.     By  Sir  Walter  Scott 
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